The Ministry of Health has reported 421 new coronavirus cases from 3,895 samples tested within the last 24 hours.

The new cases raise the national tally to 11, 673.

So far, a total of 230,096 samples have been tested since the first case was confirmed on March 13.

409 of the new cases are Kenyans and 12 are foreigners.  297 are male, while 124 are female. This trend, Health CS Muthai Kagwe says that “We have noticed even when you walk around your neighbourhood, men are not wearing masks while the average female is always in a mask.”

The CS (pictured) was briefing the nation from Nakuru as he assessed the county’s level of preparedness in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

The youngest case is a one-year-old and the oldest a 93-year-old.

The Ministry has also discharged 570 patients. 512 of those have been on home-based care and 58 others were recovering at various facilities across the country.

The total recoveries now stand at 3,638. He added, “Home-based care is likely to be the trend and method we are going to use.”

The country has lost another eight people to the disease, raising the death toll to 217. Kagwe said that this virus can be prevented if Kenyans take the health guidelines with the seriousness they demand and not resume normal behaviour. “We don’t have to bury people using bulldozers. We can avoid it. Kenyans can save each other.”

Reduce risk

Launching the Primary Healthcare Strategic Framework and Community Health Policy, CS Kagwe said that the government strongly believes that this model will help reduce the risk of spreading the disease, and is working towards achieving 100 per cent community healthcare coverage.

This method, he says, will also enable them to focus on the health and well-being of individuals.

“We have a Ministry of Health, not a Ministry of Covid-19. The primary healthcare approach requires multi-sectoral policies and integrated services for the well-being of individuals. We must emerge from this pandemic stronger by strengthening the healthcare pillar of UHC,” the CS said.

Kagwe lamented on the relaxed behaviour by Kenyans amid an upsurge of coronavirus cases.

“Easing the cessation of movement was not because we did not expect Covid-19 cases to go up. We did so because we believe that Kenyans have attained a level of care and understanding of this disease. We continue to insist that you stay alive. Freedom comes with responsibility,” he advised.  

The CS was speaking from Nakuru County on Thursday which has reported 150 positive cases.

Governor Lee Kinyanjui said that majority of the cases were from truck drivers and that transmission is now at the community level.

Nakuru has been identified as a high-risk county due to its high population, hence the risk has increased significantly. 

Globally, cases of Covid-19 are at least 13.7 million with over 587,000 deaths reported and over 8 million recoveries.