Covid-19: Kenya reports 27 new Omicron cases as 2,169 test positive

Kenya has confirmed some 27 new cases of Omicron variant of the coronavirus from 34 samples tested between November 23 and December 7, 2021.

The Health Ministry, in a statement Saturday said it had identified nine lineages of the variant circulating in Kenya from 34 samples.

“Two individuals with the Omicron variant had recently travelled from South Africa and Ghana and the rest had no recent international travel history,” Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe stated.

Kagwe said that the increase in the variant infections is an indication of ongoing community transmission, while calling for heightened vaccination and observance of Covid-19 protocols.

Kenya confirmed her first cases of Omicron variant on Wednesday, found in travelers at airports.

Further, the country has today reported 2,169 new Covid-19 infections from 9,428 samples tested in the last 24 hours.

Kenya’s positivity rate is now 23 per cent with 262,335 confirmed cases and 2,924,685 tests conducted so far.

Thirty patients have also recovered from the disease, with “seventeen discharged from the Home-Based Isolation and Care program and thirteen from various health facilities.”

Total recoveries in the country now stand at 249,222.

No death has been reported in the latest statistics. The Covid-19 death toll remains 5,353.

Some 241 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, while 4,474 are under the Home-Based Isolation and Care program.  9 patients are in the ICU, 50 on supplemental oxygen and one patient in the HDU.

On vaccination, Kenya has administered 8,818,453 vaccines so far.

5.3 million people are partially vaccinated while 3.6 million are fully inoculated. Only 13 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.

The CS said the Government is working towards vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033.