Kenya's Covid-19 cases jump by 1,085 to over 205,000

Covid-19 mass testing in Eastleigh

A health worker writes on a sample of a specimen bottle while a resident of Eastleigh, Nairobi, waits to be tested for the coronavirus during a mass testing exercise on May 20, 2020. 

Photo credit: Simon Maina | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe further reported 25 more deaths, one of them new and 24 late reports from the audit of facility records, raising the toll to 3,995.

Kenya on Tuesday recorded 1,085 new Covid-19 cases from 7,067 samples tested in the past 24 hours, marking a positivity rate of 15.4 percent.

The Ministry of Health, in a statement to media houses, said the number of confirmed positive cases soared to 205,356 while the number of tests conducted so far rose to 2,149,376.

Of the new patients, 550 were female and 535 male, 1,049 Kenyans and 36 foreigners, the youngest three months old and the oldest 100 years.

In terms of case distribution by county, Nairobi accounted for 401, Kiambu 96, Nakuru 90, Machakos 60, Mombasa 56, Nyeri 54, Kilifi 43, Kajiado 38, Uasin Gishu 36, Murang’a 22, Turkana 16, Kericho and Garissa 15 each, Laikipia 13, and Baringo and Nandi 11 each.

Nyamira and Trans Nzoia  followed with 10 each, Nyandarua nine, Siaya and Kisumu eight each, Narok, Lamu, Taita Taveta and Marsabit seven each, Embu six, Kakamega, Makueni and Migori five each, Kitui four, Kirinyaga, Kisii and Meru two each, and Tana River, Vihiga, West Pokot and Kwale one each.

Photo credit: Covid-19 in Kenya

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe further reported 25 more deaths, one of them new and 24 late reports from the audit of facility records, raising the toll to 3,995.

He said the late reports were confirmed after audits in August, September, October and November 2020 and March, April and July.

Another 403 patients recovered from the disease, 305 under home-based care and 98 at health facilities countrywide, raising the total to 190,095.

As of Tuesday, CS Kagwe said, 1,540 Covid-19 patients had been hospitalized across the country while 4,112 had been registered for treatment at hime.

Of those in hospital, 190 were under intensive care, 44 of them on ventilator support, 94 on supplemental oxygen and 52 under observation.

Another 475 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 437 of them in general wards and 38 in high dependency units.

Photo credit: Nation Media Group

In terms of vaccination, 1,734,013 vaccines had been administered across the country - first doses numbering 1,067,615 and second doses numbering 666,398.

The uptake of the second dose was 62.4 percent with the majority of the recipients being male (55 percent), while the proportion of fully vaccinated adults was 2.4 percent.

Recipients of the second vaccine dose were listed as 205,937 people aged 58 years and above, 116,136 health workers, 96,714 teachers, 53,191 security officers and 194,420 ungrouped individuals.