Kenya's Covid-19 positivity rate down to 4.2pc

Covid-19 vaccination

A medic administers a Covid-19 vaccine at the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council's headquarters in Nairobi on March 31, 2021.

Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • As of Monday, 1,410 patients had been admitted to health facilities countrywide while 3,107 were in the home-based care programme.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Kenya Monday increased to 246,643 after 113 more people tested positive from a sample of 2,680 analysed in the last 24 hours.

The positivity rate dropped to 4.2 per cent from 6.3 per cent the day before, while the number of tests conducted so far rose to 2,500,729.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Kenyan patients numbered 104 and foreigners nine and that the the youngest new patient was five years old and the oldest 91.

Male patients were 44 in number while female patients were 58.

In terms of case distribution by county, Nairobi accounted for 60, Garissa nine, Kiambu and Meru eight each, Kajiado and Kitui five each, Nakuru and West Pokot four each, Marsabit and Tharaka Nithi two each, and Embu, Kericho, Kwale, Laikipia, Machakos and Murang’a one each.

Photo credit: Nation Media Group

Six more deaths

In a statement, the ministry further announced six more deaths, raising the toll to 4,995, but explained that only one occurred over the last 24 hours while the rest were late death reports from the audits of facility records in September.

CS Kagwe also announced that 655 more patients had recovered from the disease, 190 of them in hospital and 465 at home, raising the total to 237,950.

As of Monday, 1,410 patients had been admitted to health facilities countrywide while 3,107 were in the home-based care programme.

Of the patients in hospital, 105 were under intensive care, 73 of them on ventilator support, 27 on supplemental oxygen and five under observation.

Another 478 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 445 of them in general wards and 33 in high dependency units.

Photo credit: Nation Media Group

Vaccines

As of Monday, 3,364,322 vaccine doses had been administered across the country, 3,364,322 being first jabs and 859,453 second.

The uptake rate of the second dose stood at 34.3 per cent, with the recipients listed as 248,240 people aged 58 years and above, 139,263 health workers, 127,156 teachers, 72,718 security officers and 272,076 ungrouped individuals.

"The government is working towards vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033," CS Kagwe said.

The proportion of fully vaccinated adults in the country stood at 3.2 per cent.