Kenya's Covid-19 cases exceed 1,300
What you need to know:
- Nairobi, the epicentre of the outbreak in the country, led all other counties with 23 new cases, followed by Mombasa with 16, Kwale with eight, Kajiado and Kiambu with six each and Kitui with three.
- Nationwide, a total of 64,264 tests have been conducted so far, with 2,293 done in the last 24 hours, said Dr Aman.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Kenya has reached 1,348, Ministry of Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said on Tuesday.
The country recorded 62 cases over the past 24 hours, Dr Aman said in his daily update.
Nairobi, the epicentre of the outbreak in the country, led all other counties with 23 new cases, followed by Mombasa with 16, Kwale with eight, Kajiado and Kiambu with six each and Kitui with three.
In Nairobi, the cases were distributed in Umoja (6), Kibra (6), Eastleigh (3), Dagoretti North(2), Lang’ata(2), Westlands (2), Starehe and Embakasi East had one case each.
In Mombasa, the cases were from Changamwe (9), Jomvu (3), Nyali (3), Mvita (1). In Kwale, the cases were reported in Msambweni (4), and Lunga Lunga (4). Kiambu had six cases from Lari (5) and Ruiru (1), while in Kajiado, the cases were distributed in Kajiado East (1) and Kajiado Central (4).
The three cases in Kitui were all from Miambani.
“When community transmission of the disease has established itself, then, the number of positive cases is dependent upon the scale of testing that has been undertaken. The more testing you do, the more likely you will unearth positives,” said Dr Aman.
The total number of recoveries to date is 405, after three more patients were discharged from hospital, the CAS said.
Fatalities still remain 52.
Nationwide, a total of 64,264 tests have been conducted so far, with 2,293 done in the last 24 hours, said Dr Aman.
At the same briefing, Dr Aman revealed that Kenya is set to approve clinical trial for repurposed drugs under the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Solidarity Study.
Dr Aman said the government was in the final stages of setting the rules for conducting the clinical trials for the drugs recommended by the WHO.
“These trials have not kicked off in Kenya because we have a procedure for approving clinical trials that we follow.
"That process is ongoing and will be approved very soon, after which we will go ahead to recruit patients who are in these facilities for this study,” said Dr Aman.
“Some countries have already moved forward and some level of data is out. The solidarity trials are meant to collect as much information as possible across the globe.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced that the mobile laboratory installed in Namanga is operational, reducing tests waiting time from four days to only five hours.
Dr Aman said the laboratory had been used to test some 46 samples.
“I want to confirm that the mobile laboratory we set up in Namanga is already functioning. We hope the presence of the laboratory in Namanga should be able to deal with the flow of truckers across the border,” he said.
