Kiambu now overtakes Mombasa in infection rate
Kiambu county has now overtaken Mombasa in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, the Ministry of Health disclosed yesterday.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said that Nairobi continues to lead with 17,889 followed by Kiambu with 2,228 while Mombasa is third with 2,224.
Kajiado is fourth with 1,627 while the lowest infections have been reported in Elgeyo Maraket and West Pokot counties with six, respectively.
“It is important that people in these counties and across the country should be extra careful with their adherence to containment measures,” said Dr Aman yesterday.
Some 245 more people tested positive in the last 24 hours from a sample size of 3,150, becoming the second day to record lower cases compared to the over 500 daily infections in the last weeks.
New coronavirus infections saw the case load rise to 30,365 pushing the cumulative tests to 394,566.
The number of recoveries also rose after another 504 patients recovered from the disease.
From this numbers, 461 were from home-based care program while 43 have been discharged from various hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 17,160.
However, eight more patients succumbed to the disease to bring fatalities to 482. Of the eight who passed on, five had underlying issues
Dr Aman said that data from the Ministry indicates that 29,538 which is 98 per cent of the confirmed cases were through local transmissions.
“This means that the virus is fully domiciled within our people in the villages, estates or counties since all the 47 counties are now affected,” said the CAS.
He stated that Nairobi and Mombasa continue to have the highest attack rates of coronavirus at 406.8 and 184.1 per 100,000 populations respectively when compared to the national average of 63.3.
Nairobi led in yesterday’s statistics with 149, followed by Kiambu 23, Kajiado 14, Mombasa 10, Garissa nine, Machakos nine, Nyeri seven, Narok seven, Busia four, Kilifi three, Laikipia two, Murang’a two and Kitui two.
And amid claims of loss of funds meant to cushion spread of the coronavirus disease, Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentist (KMPDU) Secretary General, Chibanzi Mwachonda said the medical personnel are a dejected lot.
“In a country like Kenya where corruption reigns amidst coronavirus, there is no reason why health care workers should continue risking their lives on the frontline, hence forth we should all stay home for our own safety and protection,” Mwachonda posted on his twitter account.
But Dr Aman urged health workers not to abandon their duty, having taken the Hippocratic oath to serve.
“As healthcare workers, we have an obligation to serve those we have spent our careers in developing the skills to be able to serve them.
In the practice of medicine there is something we call the Hippocratic oath that doctors take to serve and when you take it you serve in whatever circumstances,” said Dr Aman.
