Covid positivity rate at 12.6pc as Kenya records 565 new cases

Kenya has Tuesday recorded 565 new Covid-19 infections, with a positivity rate of 12.6 per cent, up from 9.7 per cent on Monday, raising total confirmed positive cases in the country to 235,863. The cases were from a sample size of 4,494 tested in the last 24 hours.

Of the new infections, 554 are Kenyans while 11 are foreigners, with 292 being female while 273 are male. The youngest is an 11-month-old baby while the oldest is 95 years.

Total cumulative tests conducted so far are 2,371,571.

Nairobi County continues to lead in the number of new infections with 157 cases followed by Kiambu with 95, Nakuru 73, Uasin Gishu 35, Murang’a 27, Kisumu 25, Turkana 20, Nyandarua 17, Garissa 14, Narok 12, Kakamega 10, Lamu 10, Kitui 9, Kajiado 8, Makueni 7, Nyeri 7, Marsabit 6, Tharaka Nithi 5, Mombasa 5, Homa Bay 4, Siaya 4, Machakos 3, Meru 3, Baringo 2, Taita Taveta 1, Tana River 1, Bungoma 1, Migori 1, Busia 1, Kisii 1 and Vihiga 1.

In his statement on Tuesday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced that 1,280 patients more have recovered from the disease with 1,062 of them being from home-based care and 218 from hospitals.

The total recoveries now stand at 223,637 of whom 181,238 are from the home-based isolation programme while 42,399 are from various health facilities countrywide.

Deaths

Mr Kagwe also said that six deaths were reported on Tuesday, five of which were late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits on diverse dates in August 2021. This now pushes the cumulative fatalities to 4,726.

According to CS Kagwe, 1,898 patients are admitted to various hospitals countrywide, while 5,037 are under home-based isolation. He added that 160 patients are in the intensive care, 103 of whom are on ventilatory support and 53 on supplemental oxygen. Four patients are under observation.

Another 807 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen, with 736 of them being in general wards and 71 in high dependency units.

In terms of vaccination, a total of 2,773,239 vaccines have been administered across the country. Of these, total first doses are 1,968,656 while second doses are 804,583.

The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 40.9 per cent, with the majority being males at 55 per cent, while the proportion of adults fully vaccinated is 2.95 per cent.