104 Covid cases reported as fears of new variants emerge

Health Director General Dr Patrick Amoth. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Today, some 104 persons have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Health Ministry announced that it had tested 3,348 samples in the last 24 hours, pushing cumulative tests to 1,220,043.

The country’s total confirmed cases are now 102, 048.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said that seventy-seven of the new cases are Kenyans while twenty-seven are foreigners.

Similarly, 66 are men and 38 women.

Kenya has also reported 69 recoveries on Tuesday, pushing total recoveries to 84, 542.

“37 from various health facilities while 32 are from the Home based Isolation and Care,” Kagwe said.

Some three patients have succumbed to the disease. The Covid-19 death toll is now 1,789.

CS Kagwe added: “386 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, while 1,315 are on Home Based Isolation and Care. 37 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit, thirteen of whom are on ventilatory support and 21 on supplemental oxygen.”

The Ministry says it is observing three patients, as another eleven patients are separately on supplementary oxygen and all are in the general wards.

New Covid variants

Acting Health Director General Dr Patrick Amoth has urged County Health Department and Port Health Services to be on high alert, in light of the new Covid-19 variants reported globally.

Dr Amoth urged the relevant agencies to enhance screening of travellers at all official point of entries and promptly identify Covid-19 suspected cases with history of international travel.

Counties were also directed to enhance cross border surveillance activities including sharing of information between border sub counties and neighbouring country districts.

The county health directors were told to respond timely to all alerts and strengthen laboratory capacity for specimen collection, shipment and timely confirmation.

“Scale up risk communication and community engagement activities to enhance awareness on the public health implications of new variants to the public and emphasise the importance of maintaining ongoing preventive measures to minimise transmission,” he told county health directors.