Kenya’s COVID-19 cases hit 32,557 – KBC

The Ministry of Health has recorded 193 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours raising the country’s tally to 32,557.

This is after 3381 samples were collected and taken for testing the deadly virus.

Out of the 193 cases, three are foreign nationals while 137 were male and 56 were female.

In terms of age, the youngest was a two-month-old infant while the oldest was 87 years old.

On a good note, the Health Ministry has recorded 225 recoveries. 188 are from Home Based Care Programme while 37 were discharged from various health facilities. Total recoveries now stand at 18,895.

The country has lost six patients due to COVID-19 bringing the total fatalities to 554.

While addressing the media on the country’s COVID-19 status, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman noted that 768 children under the age of 10 years had tested positive and four died due to COVID-19.

On the other hand, 430 under the age of five have been confirmed positive with two deaths due to the virus.

“Early reports from the experience in China, indicated that the proportion of children infected by the virus was small and that they generally experience mild disease,” said CAS Rashid Aman.

“It was thought they could be community reservoirs of transmission in households, but emerging evidence suggests that children are not super-spreaders of the virus,” he added.

CAS Rashid said that the Health Ministry was advocating for the establishment of newborn units, in all level four and level three facilities, to decongest County referral hospitals and level five facilities.

He said that the newborn deaths account for 42% of all Under 5 deaths and 56% of all infants.

On health care workers strike the CAS appealed to healthcare workers to continue rendering services stating that their grievances are being addressed by the government.