UPDATE: Health Ministry on Wednesday, May 5, announced that the Covid-19 variant from India has been detected in Kenya.
Health DG Patrick Amoth stated that five cases were picked up on arrival into the country on Thursday last week before the ban on flights from India was imposed.
“Yes, this variant has been picked in Kenya, and because of global connectivity, it is just a question of time. You cannot be able to put barriers to prevent a virus from accessing your territory,” said Dr. Amoth.
The variant is considered 15 times more deadly.
489 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19, from a sample size of 4,426 tested in the last 24 hours.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Health CAS Rashid Aman stated that Kenya's positivity rate was currently at 11 per cent. This is more than double the positivity rate of 5.2 per cent that was recorded on Tuesday
From the cases, 449 are Kenyans while 40 are foreigners. 266 are male and 223 are female. The youngest is a 4-month-old-infant while the oldest is 102 years.
The total confirmed positive cases in the country stands at 161,393.
The distribution of positive cases by age is as follows ; 0-9 years (24), 10-19 years (31), 20-29 years (90), 30-39 years (122), 40-49 years (91), 50-59 years (72), 60 and above (59).
552 patients have recovered. 303 from various health facilities countrywide while 249 from home-based and isolation care. Total recoveries now stand at 109,769.
Sadly, 20 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,825.
Eleven of the deaths were reported on diverse dates while nine are late deaths reports from health facilities audits.
Currently, 1,164 patients are admitted to various health facilities while 6, 603 are in the home-based care program.
153 patients were in the ICU, 28 of whom were on ventilator support, 99 on supplemental oxygen and another 26 under observation.
Another 119 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen out of whom 111 were in the general wards and eight in the high dependency unit.
So far, 900, 459 individuals have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Kenya.
