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A day ahead of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s announcement on Covid-19 measures, the Ministry of Health described the country’s infection curve as steep after 307 more people tested positive.
The new numbers come just a day after the country recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases so far in a day at 389.
A breakdown issued by Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman, who gave the brief yesterday, showed that in the week ending July 5, the country has been recording an average of 216 cases a day. On May 17-23, the average case daily was 52, May 24-30 (99), May 31-June 6 (102), June 7- 13 (122), June 14-20 (146), and June 21-27 was 190.
“This is ample proof that the cases are rising and our curve is beginning to become steep,” said Aman.
This damning news probably sinks the hopes of many Kenyans who are expecting President Kenyatta to reopen the economy by lifting the curfew and lockdown orders on Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera, which end today.
Kenya’s economy has been on standstill due to cessation of movement orders that came into effect on March 27, two weeks after the country reported its first case on March 13.
As of yesterday, the case load in the country was 7,886 after testing 189,263 samples.
“The rising cases of infection imply that many more people will require critical care, and our healthcare facilities risk being overwhelmed,” said Aman.
However, this is already happening even as the ministry maintained that there are still spaces in hospitals to accommodate severely ill patients, particularly in Nairobi.
“We are not aware of any patients who have been turned away. What we have is a home-based care programme where these patients are taken care of at home. Our duty of care is to avoid mortalities,” said head of Public Health Francis Kuria.
The case fatality stands at 2.09 per cent, with 160 dead so far from the disease. Underlying conditions like diabetes and hypertension are some of the diseases that increase risk of death after a coronavirus infection.
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