Data on deaths and births is significantly low, the civil registration department has raised concerns.
Records show that since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, registration of deaths and births has gone down by 15 and 13 per cent, respectively.
Janet Mucheru, the director Civil Registration Services said the drop is as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and manual recording of the data has also been affected.
“During this time of Covid-19, some of the vital events may go unregistered because of the fear of the infection,” she said.
Mucheru noted low delivery in health facilities which has had an impact on registration of births. Many of the home deliveries also go unregistered, she noted.
“Backlog of birth registration is due to limited mobility by registration agents,” she said, adding that high teen pregnancy will have long term effect on civil registration administrative process.
The stay home order has also affected expectant mothers seeking delivery in health facilities.
According to the breakdown by the department; 39,291 less births were recorded in May 2020 compared to last year the same period.
The department recorded 82,583 births in April compared to 100,896 in 2019 while in March when the pandemic started, the number was 8,556 less compared to last year when the figure was 95,596.
On deaths, the drop witnessed is 15.7 per cent – the highest drop being 33.9 per cent in May this year.
In May 2020, the department recorded 10,776 deaths compared to 16,312 at the same period last year.
In April this year, the department recorded 11, 096 deaths compared to 13,431 the same period last year.
