[Additional reporting by Ojwang Joe in Kisumu]
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 9 – More than 1,000 patients were discharged in Kenya Sunday after recovering from COVID-19, raising hope for patients admitted in various hospitals or confined in homes.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the 1,062 patients cleared on Sunday raises the number of recoveries so far to 12,961.
“This is the highest number of patients we have discharged,” Kagwe said during a visit to Kisumu county on its preparedness in fighting the virus. “We sincerely give thanks to our medical staff, for the work they have done to make this possible.”
79 of those cleared Sunday were admitted at various hospitals while 983 were confined in their homes receiving care.
Kagwe also announced two more deaths, raising the country’s fatalities to 420.
On Sunday, Kenya recorded 599 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths, raising the total cases so far to 26,436.
“Let us continue observing the Ministry of Health protocols to ensure we flatten the curve,” CS Kagwe said, “we have 599 new cases and the total is 26,436.” The new cases announced Sunday were detected from 4,420 samples.
Kagwe has warned doctors against withholding results to families who lose their kin to COVID-19.
He said such decisions pose grave consequences of increased infections because families end up burying their kin without following public health protocols.
“When a person succumbs to COVID-19, they do so at their most infectious state shedding the virus at a very high level and therefore, when buried without the protective measures in place everyone close to them is exposed,” he warned.
He said some Doctors have been withholding results for bereaved families to protect them from stigmatisation.
“Anybody can get this disease let’s not stigmatize it by giving false certificates knowing that at that point anybody coming close to that body is going to be infected,” Kagwe said, on a visit to Kisumu County, where he toured the main public hospital accompanied by his Education counterpart George Magoha and Governor Anyang Nyong’o.
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