16 more Covid-19 cases as Nairobi, Mombasa remain hotspots – KBC

16 people have tested positive for Covid-19 bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 336.

Out of the 946 samples tested across 12 counties in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr. Rashid Aman said Friday during the daily briefing on Covid-19 situation in the country that the latest cases are from Nairobi and Mombasa counties.

The 16 are community transmissions picked by surveillance teams with Nairobi leading with 11 cases.

The 11 Nairobi cases are spread between Dandora (5), City park (2), Eastleigh (1), Parklands (2) and Pipeline (1).

Mombasa’s five cases are in Kiembeni (1), Centi Kumi (1), Stadium (1), Msikiti Nuru (1) and Mulaloni (1).

Five people have been discharged bringing the number of those who have recovered from the disease to 94. The number of fatalities still remains at 14.

The government has scaled up testing with the latest tested samples being the highest.

“We are continuing to scale up our testing, with full awareness that it is only through testing that we can know the scope of our problem. In the last 24 hours, we have tested 946 samples across twelve (12) counties. This brings to 16,738 the total number of tests conducted so far” said the CAS.

He cautioned Kenyans against complacency in the fight against Coronavirus.  While acknowledging that the measures the ministry has put together to curb the spread of the virus have yielded positive results, Dr Aman, warned that complacency was slowly creeping back.

He noted that the ministry was concerned with mass gatherings in the form of political meetings in parts of the country.

“While the intention of some of these gatherings could be noble, like what we saw in Meru and Elgeyo Marakwet, the execution violates our social distancing rules that we have been preaching, day in day out. We wish to remind all Kenyans, including our political leaders to desist from undermining the laid down rules and guidelines” he said.

He further clarified that the government is not aware of Oxford university vaccine trial in which Kenya has been mentioned as a pilot.