Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Tuesday clarified that the contradictory Covid-19 report released on Sunday was due to double testing of some samples.
Kagwe said there are sometimes a second test is done on the same person and these results led to double counting.
"The report of 960 included samples that had been repeated. These things sometimes happen and the best thing that we can do is to own up," he said.
On Saturday, the ministry reported that there were 960 new cases of coronavirus which has since been corrected to 892.
The CS said it was better to own up to the mistake than to continue convincing Kenyans that the figures released were correct.
"This is not the only time that that mistake is going to happen. We are human beings and its likely that something like that can occur," he said.
He stressed that the ministry will try as much as possible to ensure that such mistakes don't happen again by securing testing in the country.
Speaking from Ministry of Health headquarters at Afya House in Nairobi, Kagwe announced 606 new cases of Covid-19, raising the country's total to 18,581.
The new positives were drawn from the 4,888 people whose samples were tested within 24 hours.
He also reported 75 new recoveries, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country so far to 7,908.
However, 14 more patients succumbed to the virus, raising fatalities in the country to 299.
