Mwangangi: Pandemic statistics not cooked
Irene Githinji @gitshee
The government yesterday raised the red flag over the high rate of Covid-19 infections in Nairobi, warning that the figures are real and not manufactured.
The Ministry of Health said Nairobi has about 16,000 cases so far, even as Kenyans raise concerns on where the numbers are obtained on a daily basis.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr Mercy Mwangangi explained yesterday that reports are made everyday to the Emergency Operations Centre, which is nested at Afya Annex, near Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
“We have an emergency operation centre and teams sit there and receive alerts, which come in a number of ways.
For instance an alert can come regarding a person who has been in contact with a positive individual.
Such alerts urge teams to come in and take a sample and then run a test,” said Mwangangi during the daily update on the status of coronavirus disease in the country.
She also explained that there are institutions and routine surveillance happening across the country, particularly in Nairobi, where Ministry staff goes in to identify the number of people, take their samples and test them.
“These are not manufactured numbers or cases. We have an elaborate team of rapid response working on a 24-hour basis,” said Mwangangi.
Meanwhile, coronavirus case load in the country now stands at 28,754 after 650 more people tested positive in the last 24 hours. The new cases included 631 Kenyans and 17 foreigners.
A total of 490 more people recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the number of recoveries to 15,100.
The home-based care continues to yield results as 308 patients who recovered yesterday were recuperating under this programme while 182 were from various hospitals.
The Ministry said that 60 per cent of recoveries in the country are from the home-based programme.
But even with the high number of recoveries, the death toll also rose after four more people succumbed to the disease, raising the total number of fatalities to 460.
Mombasa and Kiambu are second and third counties with more than 2,000 cases each, Kajiado has 1,500 cases, Machakos has about 1,000 then Busia with 800 cases while Nakuru has 604.
New infections
West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet were the only counties with single digit infections as at yesterday, with each reporting six and five cases respectively.
Nairobi continued to lead with number of new infections after 356 more tested positive, Kiambu had 53, Nakuru (48), Machakos (26), Kajiado and Busia had 20 cases each.
Uasin Gishu and Laikipia reported 15 cases each, Bomet (10), Bungoma (9), Migori, Mombasa and Kisii had seven cases each while Tharaka Nithi had six cases.
Murang’a, Narok and Turkana had five cases each, Kericho, Makueni , Kitui and Samburu had four cases each, Embu, Baringo and Nandi three cases respectively.
The CAS said home-based care has been lauded for yielding positive results since it was established
“The home-based care was celebrated across Africa that people from South Africa and Ghana are trying to find out what Kenya is doing ,” said Mwangangi.
She said the ministry is exploring putting up an online platform to reach out to as many as possible.
