Kenya records highest Covid-19 deaths in a day as 213 more test positive

Kenya recorded 10 Covid-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours. This is the highest number of coronavirus related-deaths the country has registered in a day and it now brings the total number of mortalities to 117.

The country’s coronavirus new cases also shot past 200-mark as 213 new people were found to be carriers of the disease. This was after testing 6,024 samples.

According to Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman (above), the significant increase in the number of positive cases should not cause alarm because it can only be attributed to an increase in the country’s testing capacity.

“We have been testing two thousand samples in a day…the increase in the number of cases is because we have had a backlog of samples which happened because we did not have reagents,” he said.

The country’s coronavirus cases have now scaled to 4,257. Out of the 213 new cases noted, 151 are males and 62 are females. 198 of them are Kenyans while 15 are foreigners. Dr Rashid in his daily update on the coronavirus on Thursday evening lauded the efforts of health workers, as he announced that 106 people had been discharged after testing negative. This brings the number of recoveries to 1,459.

Nairobi produced the highest number of cases (136), Mombasa (32), and Kajiado (13). The other counties that registered Covid-19 cases include Busia, Taita Taveta, Kitui, Migori, Narok, Embu, Isiolo, Garissa, Machakos and Nakuru.

Dr Rashid spent the better part of his press conference persuading Kenyans to continue observing the containment measures and social distancing rules. He warned against the creeping normal behaviour where individuals fail to comply with the rules provided by the ministry of health and endanger their lives.

The CAS also emphasised on the need to test the truck drivers 48 hours before hitting the road. This he said would solve the problem of delayed results at the border points which lead to traffic snarl-up.