Kenya's confirmed Covid cases jump by 719 to 183,603

Covid testing in Eastleigh

Residents of Eastleigh in Nairobi queue at Zawadi Primary School on May 20, 2020 for the Covid-19 test.

Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • In terms of vaccination, a total of 1,334,749 doses had been administered by Tuesday, 1,005,901 being first doses and 328,848 second doses.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced that 719 more people in Kenya had tested positive for Covid-19, following the analysis of 7,608 samples within a day.

This placed the country’s positivity rate at 9.5 per cent and the number of confirmed infections at 183,603.

Of the new patients, 666 were Kenyans and 53 foreigners, 435 male and 284 female, the youngest one year old and the oldest 93 years.

Nairobi County accounted for 188 of the new cases and was followed by Busia with 76, Kisii 57, Siaya 53, Kisumu and Kilifi 38 each, Uasin Gishu 29, Kakamega 26, Nakuru 23, Vihiga 22, Mombasa 17, Bungoma 16, Homa Bay 15, Machakos 14, and Kericho and Turkana 13 each.

Nandi and Kiambu recorded 11 new infections each, Laikipia 10, Taita Taveta seven, Embu and Kajiado six each, Nyamira five, Kwale and Makueni four each, Trans Nzoia three, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Kitui, Migori and Migori two each, and Narok, Nyandarua, Garissa, Isiolo, Meru and Bomet one each.

Photo credit: Nation Media Group

Deaths, recoveries

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, in a statement to newsrooms, further reported nine more deaths, raising the toll to 3,621.

He explained, however, that all of them were late reports confirmed after the audit of facility records in October and December 2020, and in April and June.

CS Kagwe also announced that 800 more people recovered from the disease, 695 of them under home-based isolation and care and 105 in hospital, raising the total to 125,388.

As of Tuesday, 1,088 patients had been hospitalised at facilities countrywide while 6,465 were being treated at home.

Of those in hospital, 112 were in intensive care units (ICU), 35 of whom are on ventilator support, 47 on supplemental oxygen and 30 patients under observation.

Another 129 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 112 of them in general wards and 17 in high dependency units (HDU).

Photo credit: Nation Media Group

Vaccination

In terms of vaccination, a total of 1,334,749 doses had been administered by Tuesday, 1,005,901 being first doses and 328,848 second doses.

The uptake rate of the second dose was 32.7 percent while the proportion of fully vaccinated adults was 1.26 percent.

Among those who had taken the second dose were 100,016 people aged 58 years and above, 87,923 ungrouped people, 74,173 health workers, 42,114 teachers and 24,622 security officers.

Africa summary

In Africa, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases reached 5,442,372 on Tuesday afternoon, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, the specialised healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union, said the death toll from the pandemic stood at 141,829 while 4,777,374 patients across the continent had recovered from the disease.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt were the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

South Africa had recorded the highest Covid-19 cases in Africa, at 1,941,119, while the northern African country Morocco reported 529,895 cases as of Tuesday afternoon.