Kenya has reported a significant rise in Covid-19 deaths between the months of May and July, with the rise in fatalities ranked among the top ten globally according to data by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Kenya's death toll is currently at 222, a far cry from countries such as the US, Spain and India whose fatalities currently stand at 141,000, 28,416 and 26,273 respectively.
However, data by WHO shows that between the month of May and July, Kenya's death toll has rose from 21 on May 1 to 222 on Friday, July 17. This translates to 201 cases over the three-month period, an average of 67 deaths per month and 2.5 deaths per day for the 78 days.
On June 1, Kenya recorded 69 fatalities, which means in between June and Friday, July 17, Kenya recorded 153 more deaths an average of 3 deaths per day for 47 days.
That means out of 100 deaths per day globally, Kenya's death rate increased by an average of 2% in the past 78 days.
Kenya ranks behind Israel and Serbia which are at above 2%, Panama at 3%, the Philippines and Guatemala at 4%, Argentina at near 5%.
Chile, Colombia and South Africa top with the rise in death toll above 7%.
Kenya has also witnessed a lag in recoveries with a huge deficit between cases reported and the recoveries. As of Friday, July 17, Kenya recorded 12,062 positive cases with 3,983 recoveries.
Patrick Amoth, Director of Health at the Ministry of Health attributed the lag to Kenya's case fatality rate. (ase Fatality Rate (CFR) is the proportion of people who die from a specified disease among all individuals diagnosed with the disease over a certain period of time.
"The greater worry in this pandemic is the case fatality rate. Kenya’s rate is 1.9% compared to the global average of 6.7%. Recoveries can only be reported after 14 days once one is virus-free, while new cases are reported every day. This explains the lag in numbers," Amoth tweeted on Wednesday, July 15
