Kenya records 63 new Covid cases as death toll hits 1,713

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe gives an update on the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya during a press conference at Afya House in Nairobi on November 16, 2020. 

Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media group

Sixty three more people in Kenya have tested positive for Covid-19, the Ministry of Health announced Monday, saying this raised the number of declared cases since March to 98,334.

The cases were found after the testing of 2,134 samples in the past 24 hours, raising the total to 1,094,278.

Fifty seven of the new patients were Kenyans and six are foreigners, 37 male and 26 female, and the youngest eight years old and the oldest 73.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe also announced the deaths of six more patients, raising the toll to 1,713.

In terms of recoveries, CS Kagwe reported that the count had increased by 226 to 81,101. Of the newly recovered patients, 221 had been under the home-based care programme while five were treated at various hospitals.

Admissions

As of Monday, the Health ministry said, 687 patients had been admitted while 2,190 were being treated at home.

Thirty one of the hospitalised patients were in intensive care units (ICU), 20 of them on ventilatory support ,11 on supplemental oxygen and one under observation.

Another 11 patients were on supplementary oxygen but in the general wards.

No patient was in a high dependency unit.

The ministry reported on Sunday that 32 health workers had succumbed to the virus while more than 3,060 had tested positive for the virus first confirmed in Kenya on March 13, 2020.

It originated from Wuhan, China, and was first reported on December 31, 2019.