Kenya’s COVID-19 rate slows to 11.9pc as 679 cases recorded » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 16- Kenya’s COVID-19 positivity rate slowed down to 11.9 percent Monday from Sunday’s 14.4 percent, after 679 new COVID-19 were detected.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the new cases were detected from a sample size of 5,693 raising the total caseload to 221,406.

1,981 patients were admitted in various health facilities countrywide including 159 patients in the Intensive Care Unit,  while 9,602 are under the Home-Based Isolation and Care program.

67 were on ventilatory support,  85 on supplemental oxygen, 7 patients were under observation.

Another 768 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen with 712 of them in general wards and 56 in High Dependency Units (HDU).

Kagwe said 10 patients had succumbed to the virus with one death having been registered Sunday. The rest were deaths reported after facility record audits for the past two weeks.

The new deaths pushed cumulative fatalities in the country to 4,350.

1,550 patients were discharged after recovering from the virus, raising the total recoveries to 203,922.

By mid August, over 2 million people had been vaccinated against the virus among them 747,867 who are fully vaccinated after receiving their second.

Kenya was set to receive 407,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the United Kingdom Tuesday, having received the initial batch two weeks ago.

British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said the doses are the remaining half of the 817, 000 doses which President Uhuru Kenyatta secured during his three-day visit to London in July.

“I think it has been a really strong partnership between Kenya and the UK on the fight against COVID-19. We have learnt from each other,” she said.`

The consignment which will land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport will be received by the Ministry of Health officials and those from the UK government.

Kenya received the first batch of the 410,000 doses of the vaccine in July 2021 with the latest consignment set to boost the ongoing efforts by the Ministry of Health to vaccinate more Kenyans.

Kenya is also expecting 1,760,000 doses of Pfizer from the US government, officials said.

A further 235,000 doses of AstraZeneca are expected in the country from Greece with an extra 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca set to arrive in the country from Latvia as part of bilateral donations.

The Covax facility has also allocated Kenya 407,040 doses of AstraZeneca and 271,440 doses of Pfizer.
This besides the 13 million doses of Johnson and Johnson, procured by the government through the AVAT-AU mechanism, whose delivery will start in the coming weeks ahead.

With the donations Kenya is receiving, the Chairman of the Kenya Vaccine Taskforce Dr. Willis Akhwale has noted that the country is on track to build a capacity to vaccinate 150,000 people every day.