Kenya records 30 new COVID-19 deaths, 649 infections   » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 9- The Ministry of health has reported 30 new COVID-19 deaths raising fatalities from the pandemic in the country to 4,830.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the deaths were posted following audits at health facilities for the months of July, August and September 2021.

He also announced 649 new infections that were detected from 7,704 samples tested on Tuesday, raising the total caseload to 241,783.

The positivity rate stood at 8.4 percent.

333 patients were discharged on Wednesday recoveries to 230,095.

Kagwe said 2,934,285 had been vaccinated against the virus by September 8, including 817,210 who are fully vaccinated.

Kenya received the second batch of 880,320 COVID-19 Moderna vaccine doses Monday with more expected in the coming days.

The vaccines were acquired with the assistance of the US government through the COVAX facility that is helping the African Union get vaccines for the continent.

They were received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman and CDC Country Director Mark Bulterys accompanied by other officials.

On Tuesday the Japanese government donated a cold chain capacity infrastructure that includes 12 ultra-modern deep freezers.

The deep freezers with a 3 million dose capacity were handed to CS Kagwe.

He said the freezers will facilitate the storage of vaccines at temperatures of up to -70 degrees.

Kagwe said three of the freezers will be stationed at the central vaccine stores in Kitengala in Kajiado while the others will be distributed to the nine central stores in the country which include Nairobi, Nyeri and Kakamega.

“From the regional stores, these vaccines will be transported to selected vaccination posts at temperatures of plus 2 to plus 8 degrees as its common with other vaccines,” Kagwe said.

Vaccines like Pfizer from the US requires extreme cold temperatures for storage.

“We are extremely thankful to the Japanese government for this donation which will enable us store vaccines safely so as to vaccinate as many people as possible,” Kagwe said.

Kenya has deployed AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson and Moderna vaccines and is expecting Pfizer from the US in the coming days.