Positivity rate drops to nine per cent as 467 more contract Covid
George Kebaso and KNA @Morarak
Kenya yesterday recorded 467 new Covid-19 positive cases seeing the positivity rate drop to nine per cent from 13 per cent last Friday.
Health Cabinet Secretary, (CS) Mutahi Kagwe said yesterday 5, 217 samples were tested pushing the number of total positive cases to 203,680 from 2, 137,572 tests overall.
Kagwe said a total of 945 people tested positive yesterday.
Nairobi County remains the key Covid-19 hotspot with 216 positive cases out of the total 467 recorded yesterday, followed by Kiambu at 49 and Mombasa at 43.
“Today, 195 patients have recovered from the disease with 125 from the home-based care program while 70 are from various health facilities countrywide.
Total recoveries now stand at 189, 131 of whom 150, 677 are from the home based care program,” the CS said in a day when the country recorded 15 fatalities from the disease.
Revised guidelines
This, he said also pushes the overall deaths from coronavirus to 3, 946.
Kagwe said a total of 1, 475 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities across the country, while 3, 987 are under the home based care.
“186 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit, 46 of whom are on ventilator support and 84 on supplemental oxygen while 56 patients are under observation,” the CS said.
The number of people so far vaccinated against the disease hit 1, 726, 193 as at July 31, 2021 with 1, 064, 104 being those who have been vaccinated with the first dose and 662, 089 getting the second jab.
Meanwhile, Kilifi County Covid-19 Emergency and Response Committee has ordered all burials to take place within 48 hours after death and to last for maximum of two hours, in order to reduce the rising cases of the disease in the area.
The county has been recording a worrying trend of at least 20 new cases of Covid-19 infections every day; an equivalent to 15 per cent daily positivity rate in the last three months.
Led by the co-chairs of the committee, Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi and Commissioner Olaka Kutswa; the team identified burials as the major hotspots contributing to the disease spread, followed by worship places, weddings, bars, matatus, open air markets and sports tournaments.
The committee said citizens have been disregarding the Covid-19 rules, hence the need to take the harsh measures to reduce the rising infections in the county.
“Anyone reported dead, Covid related or not, should be buried within 48 hours.
The more the body is kept at the mortuary, the more people are meeting in the affected homes to organise for the burial hence more chances of spreading the disease,” said Kingi.
