Kenya records 1,506 new Covid cases with 15.3pc positivity rate

Covid-19 vaccination

A man receives the Covid-19 vaccine in Uasin Gishu County. Kenya reported 1,506 new Covid-19 infections on August 18, 2021, raising cumulative cases to 224,400.

Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group

Kenya has Wednesday reported 1,506 new Covid-19 infections after testing 9,840 samples over a 24-hour period.

With the new infections, the positivity rate is now 15.3 per cent.

From the cases, 1,473 are Kenyans while 33 are foreigners, 795 of them being female and 711 are male.

The youngest new patient is a five-month-old baby while the oldest is 102 years.

The total confirmed positive cases are now 224,400 and cumulative tests conducted so far stand at 2,278,763.

Nairobi County still leads in the number of new infections with 512 cases, followed by Kiambu with 162, Nakuru 93, Mombasa 89, Nyandarua 88, Makueni 68, Machakos 64, Murang’a 47, Embu 45, Kajiado 41, Uasin Gishu 41, Kirinyaga 32, Marsabit 25, Turkana 17, Garissa 17, Busia 17, Nandi 15, Baringo 13, Meru 12, Bungoma 10, Nyeri 10, Isiolo 8, Kilifi 8, Lamu 7, Kisii 6, Kisumu 6, Narok 6, Kitui 5, Tana River 5, Migori 5, Kwale 4, Elgeyo Marakwet 3, Homa Bay 3, Kakamega 3, Mandera 3, Tharaka Nithi 3, Wajir 3, Samburu 3, Siaya 3, Kericho 2 and Taita Taveta 2.

In a statement to media houses on Wednesday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said that 1,538 more patients have recovered from the disease, with 1,352 being from the home-based isolation and care programme while 186 are from various hospitals countrywide.

Recoveries

Total recoveries now stand at 207,450, of whom 166,877 are from the home based care programme while 40,573 are from hospitals.

During the same period, 24 patients succumbed to the disease, one of them in the last 24 hours, while 23 are late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits in the months of July and August. This now pushes the cumulative fatalities to 4,378.

CS Kagwe further said that a total of 2,054 patients are currently admitted to various hospitals countrywide while 8,408 are recovering at home. He added that 161 patients are in intensive care units, 86 of whom are on ventilatory support and 75 on supplemental oxygen. No patient is under observation.

Another 783 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen, with 723 of them in general wards and 60 in high dependency units.

As of August 17, 2021, a total of 2,154,825 vaccine doses have been administered across the country. Of these, the total first doses are 1,393,905 while second doses are 760,920.

The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first one is at 54.6 per cent, while the proportion of fully vaccinated adults is 2.8 per cent.