Kenya confirms 193 new COVID-19 cases, Ministry says curve yet to flatten

The Ministry of Health on Monday announced that the country has recorded 193 new COVID-19 cases following testing of 3,381 samples; bringing the country’s total caseload to 32,557.

Health Ministry CAS Dr. Rashid Aman said the new cases include 190 Kenyans and three foreigners and are aged between 2-87 years.

Out of the 193 new cases, Nairobi recorded 78, followed by Embu 24, Garissa 21, Kiambu 18, Nyeri 13, Mombasa 10, Samburu 6, Murang’a 5, Lamu 4, Kajiado 3, Trans Nzoia 2, Kilifi 2 while Machakos, Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, Meru, Nyandarua, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru had one case each.

At the same time, six more people succumbed to the virus bringing the number of deaths recorded so far to 554 with the number of recoveries rising to 18,895 after 225 patients recovered from the disease.

Out of 225 new recoveries, 188 were under the home-based care program while 37 were discharged from various medical facilities in the country.

Addressing the declining infection rate, Health Ministry Director General Dr. Patrick Amoth said it was still early to declare that the country had flattened curve.

“For the past one week or so you have noticed a decreasing positivity rate which as of today stands at 6%. That tells you we are making progress but we have not hit the magical 5% which we need to hit and sustain for two weeks before we can actually say we are flattening the curve,” said Dr. Amoth.

“Our projections are in line with what we told you early in March-April that the pandemic will peak in late August- September. The empirical data you are seeing is pointing to that figure but it is too early to conclusively address this matter at now.”

Dr. Amoth maintained that the Ministry is still working with the earlier projections that the pandemic could peak between August and September, adding that the next three weeks will be critical to determine whether the country has flattened the curve.

“So the next three…four weeks will be critical to determine whether we have hit the magical 5% and we sustain that positivity rate in which case we can conclusively say we have flattened the curve and therefore we can be able to lift the remaining measures,” said Dr. Amoth.