Kenya records 379 new Covid-19 cases as death toll tops 500

The Health Ministry has recorded 379 new Covid-19 cases from over 3,867 samples tested in last 24 hours raising the country’s caseload to 31,015.

While making the announcement during the daily briefing in Nairobi, Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi (pictured) also said 19 more patients have succumbed to the disease, raising Covid-19 deaths in the country to 506.

“We’ve lost 19 patients to Covid-19, one of the patients died in the household,” Dr. Mwangangi said, adding that the other 18 had underlying medical conditions which include diabetes, asthma and hypertension.

Fortunately, another 244 patients had recovered from the virus, bringing the country’ total recoveries to 17,612.

Dr. Mwangangi announced that 168 of the patients were discharged from the home-based care programme and 76 others from various health facilities across the country.

The country has so far tested a total of 402,452 samples for the coronavirus.

Of the new cases, 372 are Kenyans and seven are foreigners, 223 males and 156 females, with the youngest being a one-year-old and the oldest 87 years.

Nairobi registered 219 of the new cases, Kiambu (40), Uasin Gishu (28), Kajiado (14), Machakos (13), Kisumu (10) and Mombasa (7), Kericho (6), Bomet (5), Baringo (5), Nandi (4), Nyeri (40), Isiolo (3), Nakuru (3), Busia (2), Homa Bay (2), Garissa (2) and Kilifi (2).

Nyamira, Trans Nzoia, Taita Taveta, Makueni and Laikipia counties recorded a case each.

Ministry goals

The Ministry says it has accelerated innovative research with a key aim of learning from the current pandemic response and also contributing to global research.

“We have scientists and public health professions who are all coming together to be able to assess the current knowledge that we have on the virus and to be able to define what are the critical questions we need to be able to answer,” she stated.

And through the in-depth research, Dr Mwangangi said she was confident they had learnt a lot and been able to form some of the decisions.

However, she felt that there was a lot that the Ministry needs to build on and answer pending questions when it comes to Covid-19 pandemic.

“As the global coronavirus pandemic evolves, scientists worldwide are conducting studies to address the crisis. It is important that high quality studies continue to be conducted to avoid the harms to individuals and public in general. Kenyans are not left behind in research to find the solutions to global challenges such as covid-19,” she said.

She noted that the Ministry of Health through Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Kenya Aids Vaccine Initiative Institute of Clinical Research(KAVI-ICR) have been on the lead on both local and international collaborative Covid-19 researches.