Covid-19: Third wave looming, more patients admitted in ICU, new cases hits 829

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe.

Kenya could be staring at a looming third wave of the coronavirus pandemic if the number of new cases, increase in patients’ admissions and thinning beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU) this March, are any yardstick.

The country has so far registered 829 new cases of Covid-19 from a sample of 6,239 tested in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 13.2 per cent.

The country’s caseload now stands at 111,185 out of 1,352,126 tests conducted since March last year when the first case was reported.

The Ministry of Health also announced that one more patient succumbed to the disease, a slight drop from yesterday’s statistics where 12 patients died of the virus. There are now 1,899 cumulative fatalities.

According to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, some 566 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, the highest number this year. Some 1,694 other patients are on Home Based Isolation and Care Centre.

The number of patients in ICU has also been on an increase since the beginning of March.

For instance, on March 2, there were 58 patients in the ICU, 29 of them on oxygen. On March 4, ICU patients rose to 65 with 34 on supplemental oxygen. And today Kagwe revealed that 91 patients are in the ICU, the highest number at the onset of what appears like a third wave.

Twenty-two of those are on ventilatory support while 60 on supplemental oxygen. Nine patients are on observation.

“Another 28 patients are separately on supplementary oxygen with 26 of them in the general wards and two in the High Dependency Unit (HDU),” said Kagwe adding that 91 patients have recovered, 47 from the Home Based and Isolation Care while 44 are from various health facilities. Total recoveries now stand at 87,994. ?