• The Education ministry has instructed Health bosses to expedite the process.
• The two ministries will work together to ensure fumigation and disinfection of the institutions to make them ready for use.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
All schools and college facilities set aside as Covid-19 isolation centres are to be closed and fumigated ahead of reopening.
The Education ministry has instructed Health bosses to expedite the process.
The two ministries will work together to ensure fumigation and disinfection of the institutions to make them ready for use.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced that data from the clinical surveillance and the sero-surveillance done by Kemri Wellcome-Trust indicates the country is past the inflection point.
“But we should not throw caution to the wind as we can easily reverse progress that we have made,” acting Health director general Patrick Amoth said.
The country recorded 130 new cases of Covid-19, pushing the caseload to 37,348.
The new cases were from 3,874 samples. The country has so far tested 523,998 people.
All children will wear masks when schools reopen.
“We have developed jointly the specifications for masks because some of the learners are young and ordinary masks may not be able to fit them,” Amoth said.
The ministry will pay special attention to learners with pre-existing medical conditions such as kidney problems and sickle cell.
“We will continue to do joint surveillance in the process of learning to ensure if there are any cases we will be able to quickly pick them and act appropriately.”
Amoth noted that the country’s positivity rate is now below the WHO recommended average of five per cent.
However, to determine the flattening of the curve, the ministry will have to look at other factors such as the number of patients still admitted in healthcare facilities across the country.
By Wednesday, there were 484 patients in all health facilities with Covid-19 from 1,200 cases two months ago.
Additionally, there were 14 people under ICU, four on ventilatory support with the other 10 being on supplementary oxygen.
“Of paramount importance is that we have not noticed excess mortality at community level and our clinical surveillance at community level has not generated any evidence to indicate that the cases we are picking are from the community,” Amoth noted.
Some 106 more people recovered from the virus, 25 from home-based care while 81 were discharged from hospitals. Recoveries now stand at 24,253.
Five more patients died, raising the number of fatalities to 664.
Nairobi recorded 35 new cases followed by Kiambu with 23, Kisumu 19, Mombasa 14, Uasin Gishu eight, Kericho six, Kisii, Busia, and Kilifi each had five new infections.
Bomet and Narok had two cases while Meru, Siaya, Trans Nzoia, Turkana, Kajiado and Machakos had one case each.