Covid-19: Kenya cases rise to 4,738 after 260 more test positive
What you need to know:
- The Ministry of Health has released 550 people from hospitals for home based care after completing 14-day mandatory quarantine.
Kenya recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in 24 hours after 260 people tested positive from 3,651 samples.
The national virus tally is 4,738. Cumulatively, 140,012 samples have been run so far.
During the daily Covid-19 briefing at Afya House in Nairobi on Sunday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said out of the 260 positive cases aged between seven months and 90 years, 254 are Kenyans while six are foreigners.
100 DAYS
In terms of case distribution per county, Nairobi had 157, Mombasa (42), Kwale (15), Kiambu (14), Machakos (nine), Kajiado (seven), Migori (three), Nakuru, (three), Busia, (three), Homa Bay, (two) while Kilifi, Kisii, Kisumu, Kakamega and Laikipia had one case each.
Mr Kagwe said that tests have been increasing every month since the first case of the virus was discovered in the country 100 days ago.
The CS said that the Ministry of Health has released 550 asymptomatic Covid-19 positive patients from hospitals for home based care after completing 14-day mandatory quarantine at different isolation facilities in the country.
“It is a more practical approach to managing Covid-19, in that it calls for increased personal responsibility, and eases undue burden on our hospitals,” said Mr Kagwe.
Acting Health Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth said patients under the home-based care programme must strictly stay home and follow the ministry’s Covid-19 containment protocols.
STAY AT HOME
“If you are to stay at home, then you strictly must stay at home without exposing the rest of your family and the general public. That is why we are linking all cases of home-based care to community health volunteers and health care workers at the county level, and their care givers,” Dr Amoth said.
Mr Kagwe, however, apologised to Kenyans who were forced to go on quarantine at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We did so many mistakes, there are people who we took for quarantine and who really suffered, we want to say we are sorry, there was so much we did not know about the disease,” he said.
He said 21 people were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recoveries to 1,607, while two people succumbed to the virus. The national virus death toll is 123.
