No new deaths as Kenya’s Covid-19 cases exceed 100,000

Kenya has surpassed the 100,000 mark of declared Covid-19 cases about 11 months after confirming its first case, becoming the ninth country in Africa to do so.

In the daily update on Monday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said 69 more infections were found after 2,814 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, raising the count to 100,052.

The 2,814 tests raised the total number carried out since the first case in March 2020 to 1,158,920.

In Africa, South Africa has the highest number of infections. It surpassed the one million mark in December 2020 and by Monday, it had more than 1,400,000 cases and nearly 41,000 deaths, according to case tracker Worldometer.

The ministry said that of the 69 new patients in Kenya, 56 were locals and 13 foreigners, 52 male and 17 female, the youngest 12 years old and the oldest 99.

Nairobi accounted for 49 of the cases, Kitui nine, Mombasa two and Machakos, Busia, Garissa, Kajiado, Kisumu, Kwale, Meru, Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu one each.

No new deaths

No new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, CS Kagwe said, so the death toll remained 1,744.

The number of recoveries increased by 449 to 83,418. The ministry said 269 of the patients recovered at hospitals countywide while 180 were under home-based isolation and care.

As of Monday, 506 patients had been admitted in health facilities across the country while 1,469 were being treated at home.

Twenty five patients were under intensive care, 13 of them on ventilatory support, 11 on supplemental oxygen and one under observation.

Another 17 patients were separately on supplementary oxygen, 10 in general wards and seven in high dependency units.