Kenya's Covid-19 cases exceed 160,000 as death toll rises by 20
Residents of Mathare in Nairobi walk past a wall with a message on curbing the Covid-19 pandemic on April 18, 2021.
What you need to know:
- The ministry also announced that 20 deaths had been reported in the last 24 hours, but explained that only three were new while 13.
Kenya’s Covid-19 positivity rate on Saturday rose from 9.7 per cent the previous day to 12.8 per cent, the Ministry of Health reporting 735 new infections from a sample of 5,758 tested within a day.
This raised the country’s number of declared infections, since the first one in March 2020, to 160,053, and the number of samples analysed so far to 1,675,310.
The ministry also announced that 20 deaths had been reported in the last 24 hours, but explained that only three were new while 13 occurred in the last one month and four were confirmed during the audit of facility records.
This raised the death toll to 2,744.
The number of recoveries rose by 224 to 108,789, CS Kagwe said, noting that the majority of the patients – 177 – were treated at home and 47 in hospital.
Of the new patients, Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said, 634 were Kenyans and 101 foreigners, 429 male and 306 female, the youngest eight months old and the oldest 97.
Nairobi County accounted for 175 cases and was followed by Mombasa with 61, Uasin Gishu 49, Kisumu 36, Siaya 34, Nyeri and Nandi 33 each, Kakamega 30, Makueni 25, Nakuru 24, Bungoma 23, Kiambu 21, Kilifi 20, Migori and Busia 15 each, Isiolo 14, Narok 13, Garissa, Meru and Kitui 12 each and Machakos 11.
Bomet County recorded eight new patients, Kericho seven, Trans Nzoia and Laikipia six each, Elgeyo Marakwet, Taita Taveta, Marsabit, Homa Bay and Kajiado four each, Vihiga and Embu three each, Kisii two, and Tharaka Nithi and Samburu one each.
By Saturday, 1,304 had been admitted to health facilities countrywide while 5,648 were under home-based isolation and care.
Of those hospitalised, 188 were under intensive care, 31 of them on ventilatory support, 113 on supplemental oxygen and 44 under observation.
Another 137 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 130 of them in general wards and seven in high dependency units.
In terms of vaccination, CS Kagwe said 884,858 people had received the jab by Saturday, among them 515,288 of those aged at least 58, 157,967 health workers, 137,348 teachers and 74,272 security officers.
