Hot spots still on radar despite drop in coronavirus infections

Health experts are appealing to residents of the 13 Covid-19 hot spot counties in Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley regions not to drop their guard despite the infections rates dropping marginally over the past week.

Figures released by the Ministry of Health in the last one week showed most counties in the two regions recorded a slight decline in new infections.

The drop in cases comes in the wake of additional restrictions introduced by the government to control the spread of the virus in the region.

For instance, Migori county recorded between one and five Covid-19 cases between June 22 and June 28.

Nandi’s cases declined from nine cases on June 22 to zero on June 28.

Kisumu, which initially led with the number of infections in the region, recorded no cases on Monday, down from 51 registered on June 22.

Bomet, which had five cases on June 22, later recorded reduced infections that stood at zero on June 28.

Other counties which have registered reduced cases in the same period are Nyamira, Vihiga and Trans Nzoia.

But a sizeable number of cases were still recorded in Siaya, Busia, Homa Bay and Kakamega counties during the period under review.

Homa Bay and Siaya counties came second after Nairobi on Monday with 17 new cases each followed by Kakamega (13) and Busia (nine).

On June 27, Homa Bay had 27 cases while Siaya and Kakamega recorded 15 and 12 cases respectively.

Yesterday, Busia led in the number of new infections at 57, followed by Siaya (53), Kisumu (38), Kakamega (26), Vihiga (22), Bungoma (16), Homa Bay (15), Nyamira (five), Migori (two) and Bomet (one). 

Medical experts yesterday urged residents to continue observing containment regulations.

They warned that it was too early to celebrate the slight drop in the numbers in some counties.

The chairman of Lake Region Economic Bloc committee of Eminent Persons on Covid-19 Prof Khama Rogo said it was too early to conclude that the Covid-19 curve was flattening in the Lake Basin region.

Rogo said the region was not out of the woods yet and stressed the need for continued adherence to the Ministry of Health Covid containment measures. 

He noted that a slight reduction in the rate of infection was not necessarily an indicator of a flattening of the curve.

Flattening curve

“It will be premature to make a conclusion that we are succeeding in flattening the curve because we are still dealing within a margin of error which may depend on how much work our testing laboratories and the public are doing,” Rogo said.

Kisumu County Health Executive Prof Boaz Nyunya said that even though there had been a slight reduction in infection rate, the trend cannot be used to make a declaration of success in the fight against the disease.

Nyunya observed that making a conclusion on winning the battle against coronavirus should factor in the positivity rate, number of Covid patients in isolation wards and fatalities being reported.

He said the measures put in place to contain the spread of the virus could soon begin to bear fruit but a lot still needed to be done to flatten the curve.

 “The weekly trend on Covid infection, going by the statistics may be a slight case of flattening but this is not anything to celebrate about.

Our people must continue to adhere to the containment protocols to the letter if we have to flatten the curve soon,” Nyunya told People Daily yesterday.

He added: “I take a realistic view on the Covid infection trend because we must be able to go deeper than what meets the eye.”

Authorities in the region have been on high alert in enforcing the protocols to slow down the spread of the virus in the region.

County officials came up with stringent measures to try to curb the spread of the disease.

In Kisumu, the Covid-19 multi-agency team banned religious gatherings and conducted regular surveillance in markets to enforce Covid-19 containment measures. It also barred morgues from preserving bodies for more than 48 hours.

The team also directed that funerals must be done before 2pm on the same day bodies be removed from the morgues with only 100 people allowed to attend.