Kilifi leads with 224 new Covid cases as Kenya's total hits 191,712

Kilifi County on Friday toppled Nairobi to record the highest number of new Covid-19 cases, posting 224 of them in the past 24 hours.

Nairobi has long been the virus epicenter, once in a while taken over by counties such as Kisumu, following the recent surge in cases in the Nyanza region after confirmation of the Delta variant.

In the Health ministry’s update on Friday, Kilifi was followed by Nairobi with 183 cases, Mombasa 52, Uasin Gishu 36, Nakuru 32, Kiambu 31, Lamu 14, Murang’a and Nandi 13 each, Machakos 11 and Tana River 10.

Next were Kisumu and Kirinyaga with seven cases each, Nyeri and Taita Taveta six each, Kajiado, Kisii and Siaya five each, Trans Nzoia, Baringo, Busia, Narok and Nyandarua three each, Embu, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Kitu, Meru and Wajir two each, and West Pokot, Garissa,  Vihiga, Kwale and Mandera  one each.

In total, Kenya recorded 692 new infections following the analysis of 6,883 samples within a day, raising the number of declared infections since last March to 191,712, and the number of tests conducted by Friday to 2,043,355.

The positivity rate dropped from the 11.1 percent recorded on Thursday to 10.1 percent.

Of the new patients, 688 were Kenyans and 24 foreigners, 371 male and 321 female, the youngest a year old and the oldest 95.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe further reported that 1,108 patients had admitted to health facilities countrywide by Friday, while 4,352 others were under home-based isolation and care.

Of those in hospital, 124 patients were under intensive care, 38 of them on ventilator support, 60 on supplemental oxygen and 26 patients under observation.

Another 219 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen, 201 of them in general wards and 18 in high dependency units.

The ministry also said that another 123 patients had recovered from the disease, 82 of them at home and 41 in hospital, raising the number to 180,543.

CS Kagwe also announced that eight more people had succumbed to the virus, raising the death toll to 3,754. However, he  noted, all these were late death reports confirmed after the audit of facility records in May, June and July.

In terms of vaccination, CS Kagwe said 1,607,982 doses had been administered across the country, first doses numbering 1,035,621 and second doses 572,361.

The uptake rate of the second dose was 55.3 per cent, with the majority of the recipients being male (55 per cent), while the proportion of fully vaccinated adults was two per cent.

Meanwhile, Xinhua reported that the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa reached 6,120,888 as of Friday 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 155,502 while 5,320,688 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 was the only African country to pass the 2 million mark of confirmed Covid-19 cases, reaching 2,253,240. Morocco, in northern Africa, reported 549,844 cases as of Friday noon.

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa was the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa was the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

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