NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 19- Kenya’s COVID-19 positivity rate slowed to 9.6 percent on Monday even as 20 deaths were recorded, raising the cumulative fatalities to 2,501.
Monday’s rate is a significant improvement from a high of 22 per cent in March when President Uhuru Kenyatta issued revised guidelines to curb the infection rate.
The health facilities had been overwhelmed by a surge in numbers, while cases of death had also increased.
The government has also heightened measures like vaccination, to flatten the curve which Kenyatta said will determine the re-opening of the lockdown he imposed in five counties of Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu and Nakuru which recorded highest infections since January.
By April 19, Kenya had vaccinated 702,170 people against the disease, majority of them being health workers at 141,146.
“In terms of gender, men have continued to exhibit a lot of enthusiasm in this exercise compared to women. 393, 261 males have so far been vaccinated compared to 308,526 females,” said Mutahi Kagwe, Health Cabinet Secretary, in a COVID-19 regular update issued on Monday.
At the County level, Nairobi had the highest number of people vaccinated, with 223,992, followed by Nakuru with 42,145, while Uasin Gishu is third with 35,244.
Kiambu County is fourth with 35, 244 cases, while Nyeri County has 25, 345.
“The Counties with less than 1,000 people vaccinated since the start of the exercise is Lamu with 469, followed by Marsabit 472 and Tan River with 675,” Kagwe said.
He said the country had recorded 241 positive cases of COVID-19, from a sample size of 2,515, raising the country’s COVID-19 caseload to 151,894 cases. Of the new cases, 13 were foreigners.
636 patients also recovered from the disease, raising the total recoveries to 74, 292 cases.