NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 21 – The Health Ministry has reported 186 new COVID-19 cases from 8,049 samples diagnosed Wednesday.
This raised cases in the country to 99,630 since March 2030.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, through a statement emailed to newsrooms also reported three more coronavirus-related deaths raising the country’s death toll to 1,739.
The number of recovered patients rose to 82,729 after 75 more patients were cleared including 34 who were under home-based isolation and Care.
Kenya has recorded a sustained decline in COVID-19 cases since December 2020, and is on the path to restoring normalcy.
Although the cases have declined significantly, Kagwe cautioned that it was still too early to assume that the curve has been flattened.
“Some of the measures that we have eased especially opening of schools are pretty heavy events and we do not want to start declaring ourselves of having flattened the curve then we start going backward,” Kagwe said, “We also keep the observance of what is happening across the region and across the globe and therefore before you declare yourself of having come out of it, you must be aware of what is happening around you and the possibility that it could happen to yourself.”
Bars and restaurants in the country are operating under strict COVID-19 regulations while large crowds remain suspended.
Kenyan scientists have raised an alarm on a coronavirus variant they said differed from the one spreading in South Africa and England.
About 10 investigators from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) discovered the mutation of the virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease.
Principal investigator and researcher Charles Agoti, said that the variant unique to Kenya was detected in a batch of samples taken from Taita Taveta county
“Our interpretation is that because in this one place in Kenya we were seeing, it represents the majority of the sequenced samples, it does imply that actually, it could if it has intrinsic properties, be more transmissible,” Agoti said. “It could result in an increase in the number of cases locally.”
Kagwe said that plans were at an advanced stage in securing the country the vaccines that once delivered will help in the fight and eradication of the virus.
Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said that the World Bank had already committed to fund Kenya in purchasing the COVID-19 vaccines whose cost has been projected to be billions of shillings.