Kagwe announces 45 new Covid-19 cases, tally now at 535

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday confirmed 45 new cases of Coronavirus, the highest number ever recorded in a day since the country reported its first case.

This brings the total cases of Covid-19 in Kenya to 535 and of the 45 cases, 30 are males and 15 females.

The new cases are from Nairobi (29), Mombasa (11), Wajir (5) and one is a Somali national.

According to the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, the five cases from Wajir County had recently travelled from Mogadishu in Somalia.

The 29 cases in Nairobi are from Eastleigh, a hotspot in the city where mass testing was launched on Friday. So far 63 cases have been confirmed in that area.

“There is a community spread in three key areas: Eastleigh, Kawangware and Old Town, Mombasa,” he said, insisting on the need for the Government to take serious action in those areas.

So far, Mombasa’s Old Town has recorded 39 cases and Nairobi’s Kawangware 24 since the outbreak of the disease.

The surge in the numbers has been blamed on Kenya’s abuse of the containment measures put in place to curb the spread of the virus.

While insisting that we are not yet out of the woods, Kagwe urged Kenyans not to revert to their normal routines as the virus was still around.

“Today’s figure is a demonstration of just how far from normal things are," he said.

The Health CS also called upon Kenyans to refrain from stigmatising those who had either contracted the virus or recovered from the disease.

“There is not a single person who is immune to the virus, you are as likely to have it as I am. Therefore nobody should be stigmatized,” he said

At the same time, the CS announced that nine people had been discharged bringing the total number of recoveries to 182.