Kenya's confirmed Covid cases increase by 323 to 248,392

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe speaks at Ng'undu-Kamulu Level 3 Hospital in Ruai, Nairobi County, on September 16, 2021. 

Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • As of Saturday, 1,220 patients had been admitted to health facilities countrywide while 2,694 were in the home-based care programme.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kenya Saturday increased to 248,392 after 323 more people tested positive from a sample of 5,606 analysed in the last 24 hours.

The positivity rate rose marginally to 5.8 per cent from 5.4 per cent the day before, while the number of tests conducted so far rose to 2,533,467.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Kenyan patients numbered 317 and foreigners six and that the youngest new patient was two months old and the oldest 104.

Male patients were 104 in number while female patients were 167.

In terms of case distribution by county, Nandi overtook Nairobi with 71 new cases. The capital city accounted for 41 of the new infections and was followed by Nakuru with 30, Nyeri 22, Makueni 14, Kajiado 13, Kiambu 12 and Kisii and Mombasa 11 each.

The following were the figures for other counties:

14 more deaths

In a statement, the ministry further announced 14 more deaths, raising the toll to 5,096, but explained that only two were new while the rest were late reports from the audits of facility records in March April, July and September.

CS Kagwe also announced that 432 more patients had recovered from the disease, 45 of them in hospital and 387 at home, raising the total to 239,730.

As of Saturday, 1,220 patients had been admitted to health facilities countrywide while 2,694 were in the home-based care programme.

Of the patients in hospital, 92 were under intensive care, 2 of them on ventilator support and 40 on supplemental oxygen.

No patient was under observation.

Another 375 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 361 of them in general wards and 14 in high dependency units.

Vaccines

As of Saturday, 3,600,187 vaccine doses had been administered across the country, 2,713,427 being first jabs and 886,760 second.

The uptake rate of the second dose rose to 32.7 per cent, from 30 per cent the previous day, with the recipients listed as 253,920 people aged 58 years and above, 141,069 health workers, 128,633 teachers, 74,529 security officers and 288,609 ungrouped individuals.

The proportion of fully vaccinated adults in the country stood at 3.3 per cent.

Africa summary

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa reached 8,230,065 as of Saturday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic across the continent currently stands at 209,288.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the agency.

South Africa has recorded the most Covid-19 cases in Africa with 2,894,342 cases, while the northern African country, Morocco, reported 927,127 cases as of Saturday afternoon.

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.