NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 15 – The Ministry of Health on Monday recorded a 16.2 per cent COVID positivity rate after 731 cases were detected from 4,513 samples tested within a period of 24 hours.
The surge was reported a day after the positivity rate declined to 9.3 per cent after consistently maintaining levels above 10 per cent.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said five more patients had succumbed to the disease, raising fatalities to 1,918.
At the same time 191 patients recovered from the disease, 166 from the home based care and 25 discharges from hospitals.
Total recoveries stood at 88,596.
Kagwe said there were 678 patients admitted in various health facilities, while 2,129 were on home based isolation and care.
He said a total of 109 patients were in the Intensive Care Unit.
“23 are on a ventilatory support and 72 on supplemental oxygen. 14 patients are on observation,” he said.
Nairobi accounted for the most cases at 541, followed by Tharaka Nithi (42) and Machakos (39).
In his 14th televised national address on the pandemic on Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned of a third wave of infections, saying the positivity rate had risen from two per cent in January, to 13 per cent and “is still rising”.
As of Saturday, March 13, the Ministry of Health said a total of 9,144 people, mostly frontline health care workers, had been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the inoculation exercise began on March 5.
Kagwe on Saturday said those who had been vaccinated were drawn from 40 counties.
Nairobi County registered the highest number of health workers having received the Oxford AstraZeneca jab at 2,020 followed by Uasin Gishu County that had 1, 304 medics vaccinated.
Kenya received a second batch of 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine form India on Thursday even as many European countries continued to halted their rollout after the vaccine was linked to blood clots.
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