•Health CAS Rashid Aman noted that the low numbers being recorded is not an indicator that the virus has been defeated.
•Said the same level of preparedness has to be maintained in case of new upsurge in cases.
Counties have been warned against closing Covid-19 isolation centres amid low numbers of new infections.
There have been reports that some county governments are closing the facilities set aside to accommodate suspected and confirmed cases of the virus due to lack of patients.
On Monday, 98 new cases were reported from a sample size of 1,644 tested. The virus caseload now stands at 37,079 with total tests standing at 518,350.
Speaking during the daily update, Health CAS Rashid Aman said the low numbers being recorded is not an indicator that the virus has been defeated, adding that the same level of preparedness has to be maintained in case of any upsurge.
“Transmission of the virus is still there with us. Therefore it would not be wise at all for us to begin to think that we can now close down some of the facilities that we prepared for this Covid-19 just because we are seeing a different picture right now,” Aman said.
“We are urging all our counties to continue to maintain those facilities at the levels they are in in terms of the equipment that is there, the human resources deployed there and level of readiness that has been achieved.”
The CAS said the numbers being recorded right now might show that to some extent the containment measures put in place are yielding results in suppressing transmission but it is important to maintain the measures.
“We need to continue to keep our level of preparedness at that level we were before and not bring it down because as certain areas of the economy are opened up we are likely to see an upsurge in cases,” he said.
“Therefore, it is very important that we continue to have that ability to be able to deal with any surge that might come about because of certain events that might have taken place.”
The CAS further noted that the challenges in testing capacity continue to be experienced due to the global supply issues.
This has led to a delay in the delivery of reagents that had been scheduled to be shipped into the country.
Most of the reagents required come from the Western countries that are having high demand for the same since they have been worst-hit by the virus.
"However we will continue to test and even though our numbers may not be as high as they were before, they still give us an indication of where we stand in terms of our curve,” he said.
Some 62 more people recovered from the virus, 44 from home-based care while 18 were discharged from hospitals.
This brings the total number of patients who have fully recovered to 23,949.
The new cases are aged between nine years and 75 years, comprising of 63 men and 35 women.
Edited by Henry Makori