NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 18 – The Ministry of Health on Saturday confirmed the existence of 9 lineages of the new Omicron COVID-19 with twenty-seven sequences of thirty-four samples tested matched to the variant.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the samples were picked between November 23 and December 7, 2021.
“Twenty-seven sequences (77 per cent) were confirmed to belong to the newly identified Omicron variant of concern. Two individuals with the Omicron variant had recently traveled from South Africa and Ghana and the rest had no recent international travel history,” Kagwe said.
Kenya confirmed the presence of the first-spreading but less fatal variant on December 15 when the Health Ministry reported three cases of the Omicron variant from three travelers from South Africa; two Kenyans, and a South African national.
In his statement on Saturday, Kagwe said most of the new cases had no recent travel history suggesting ongoing community transmission of the Omicron strain which was first detected in South Africa.
The Health CS appealed to Kenyans to get inoculated to curb the spread of the virus, even as nations across the world remain divided on whether or not to impose lockdowns.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States have insisted that the variant with thirty-two mutations is less deadly compared to its predecessor, delta.
UNICEF also cautioned against closure of schools unless governments found it an absolute necessity.
In African however Rwanda announced a 10pm to 4am curfew following the surge in COVID-19 cases and suspended nightclubs and concerts to reduce further spread.
Kenya’s Ministry of Health revealed it will not recommend a lockdown, instead calling on Kenyans to be vaccinated to cushion themselves against adverse effects of the virus.
“I want to encourage Kenyans who are yet to be vaccinated to do so and EVERYONE including those already vaccinated to adhere to hand washing, social distancing and other Ministry of Health containment guidelines,” he said.
Kagwe noted that a total of 2,169 people tested positive for the disease, from 9,428 samples tested within 24 hours bringing the total number of cases reported since the outbreak of the pandemic to 262,335.
The national positivity rate was reported at 23 per cent.
“From the cases, 2,041 are Kenyans while 128 are foreigners. 1,130 females and 1,039 are males. The youngest is a two-month-old child while the oldest is 95 years,” Kagwe added.
The Health CS stated that as of December 17, a total of 8,818,453 vaccines had been administered across the country.
Of these, 5,264,630 people were partially vaccinated while 3,553,823 were fully vaccinated.
The uptake of the second dose among those who had received their first dose was at 56.5 per cent while the proportion of fully vaccinated adults was reported at 13 per cent.
The government is working towards vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033.
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