NAIROBI, Kenya, May 24 – A 48-year-old man from Nairobi’s Mathare has succumbed to COVID-19 raising the death toll from the highly contagious virus to 51.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman announced the death on Sunday when he gave a status update on efforts to contain the virus.
“On a sad note, I report we have lost one male patient aged 48 years old from Mathare raising death toll to 51. Our hearts go out to the family and friends during this time, ” he said
Aman also confirmed two more COVID-19 cases detected in a period of 24 hours during which 22 of 1,108 samples analyzed from various parts of the country tested positive for the virus.
Seventeen of the newly detected cases were registered among male patients, the reported age group of the 22 cases being between 24 to 73.
A significant number of the newly detected are distributed across Nairobi (10), Mombasa (9) where Mathare, Kibra and Mvita recorded the highest number of infections.
In Nairobi the 10 cases are spread across the estates of Mathare (2), Kibera (2), with Makadara, Embakasi West, Eastleigh, Ruaraka, Langata and Westlands registering a case each.
In Mombasa Mvita recorded 5 cases, Changamwe (1), Jomvu (1), Likoni (1) and Nyali (1).
The remaining three other cases reported in Kwale, Nakuru, Taita Taveta counties were traced to Lunga Lunga, Nakuru West and Taveta quarantine facility respectively.
An additional three patients recovered from the virus raising total number of those who have been discharged to 383.
“We thank our healthcare workers and hospital staff for providing compassionate and collaborative care to keep our patients safe,” he said.
Aman however raised concern of individuals providing wrong contacts and telephone numbers during testing.
“Once the results are out, such individuals then become unavailable. This is serious considering some of them have tested positive and we are unable to trace them,” he warned.