Kenya's Covid cases exceed 168,000 as death toll hits 3,049
A medic prepared the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine for administration to frontline personnel in the tourism and hospitality sector at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on April 27, 2021.
What you need to know:
- The CS said Kenya’s death toll rose by six to 3,049 while the number of recoveries was 114,452.
- CS Kagwe further announced that 58 more patients had recovered, 19 of them at home and 39 at health facilities countrywide.
Kenya’s number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on Saturday rose by 573 to 168,108 following the analysis of 5,798 samples for the disease within a day.
This resulted in a positivity rate of 9.9 per cent, the Health ministry said in a statement, adding the country had conducted at least 1,777,034 tests.
Of the new patients, 535 were Kenyans and 38 foreigners, 365 male and 208 female, the youngest 42 days old and the oldest 100 years.
Kisumu County led with 103 new cases and was followed by Nairobi with 61, Kitui 57, Kericho 43, Mombasa 39, Kisii 28, Busia 24, Nandi 23, Siaya and Kakamega 22 each, Uasin Gishu 18, Nyeri 17, Nakuru 16, Turkana 15, Bungoma 12, Nyamira nine, and Migori, Murang’a, Kiambu & Kilifi eight each.
Kirinyaga followed with six new patients, Embu and Homa Bay five each, Baringo and Kajiado three each, Laikipia and Trans Nzoia two each, and Machakos, Marsabit, Meru, Narok, Vihiga and West Pokot one each.
The coronavirus was first confirmed in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019 and in Kenya on March 13, 2020.
Thus far, countries across the world are vaccinating their populations while others, such as India, are also facing new rising infections due to deadlier variants of the coronavirus.
The CS said Kenya’s death toll rose by six to 3,049 while the number of recoveries was 114,452.
He said one of the deaths was new while five were confirmed after facility records were audited.
Admissions
CS Kagwe further announced that 58 more patients had recovered, 19 of them at home and 39 at health facilities countrywide.
He also said that 1,075 patients had been hospitalised by Saturday, 119 of them in intensive care units (ICU). Of those in ICU, 21 were on ventilator support, 71 on supplemental oxygen and 27 under observation.
Another 90 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 83 of them being in general wards and seven in high dependency units (HDU).
The number of patients in the home-based care programme stood at 4,674.
In terms of vaccination, a total of 952,967 persons countrywide had received the jab by Saturday.
Among them were 289,574 people aged 58 years and above, 163,917 health workers, 149,958 teachers and 80,515 security officers.
Africa report
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa reached 4,741,000 on Saturday noon, 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 127,923 while 4,288,857 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.
In terms of the number of cases, southern Africa was the most affected region, followed by northern Africa and eastern Africa regions, while central Africa was the least affected region in the continent, according to the agency.
South Africa had recorded 1,628,335 Covid-19 cases, the most among African countries.
Morocco was so far the second African country to pass the 500,000 infections mark. The country had registered 516,449 cases as of Saturday noon.
Tunisia rounded up the top three most Covid-19 affected African countries list with 332,833 infections.
