Covid update: Deaths hit 1,000 mark

Kenya might be headed for another lockdown and tougher restrictions following a surge in Covid cases.

The National Emergency Response Committee, led by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, is set to meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta and governors this week.

The meeting scheduled for Wednesday comes even as positivity rate continues to rise, an indicator that the disease is spreading at an alarming rate.

On Sunday, 685 more people tested positive for the virus, from a sample size of 4,433. This represents a positivity rate of 15.4 per cent.

On Saturday, the country recorded the highest number of cases after 1,395 more people tested positive from a sample size of 7,635 — a positivity rate of 18.2 per cent.

“We will be consulting further between now and Wednesday with the Council of Governors and the President to determine and agree on a number of measures that we might have to take to reduce or at least minimise the spread of the disease,” Kagwe said on Friday.

"The greatest fear is a situation where our health facilities will be overrun, but I'm glad to say that in most counties, the containment measures that we have made, the facilitation we have made for the development of the healthcare facilities are bearing fruit.”

As of Sunday, 1,271 patients were hospitalised across the country, while 4,806 were in the home-based isolation and care.

Fifty-three patients were in intensive care units, 31 of whom were on ventilatory support and 22 on supplemental oxygen.

Similarly, 46 patients were separately on supplemental oxygen but not in the ICU, while 17 were in high dependency units.

Last week, the CS warned that the country was staring at a second wave of the disease right in the face.

Of greater concern, however, is that counties that had a very low rate of Covid-19 infection have suddenly made a turn for the worse in what the CS blames on failure by the people to adhere to containment protocols.

For instance, Turkana that has been one of the few counties with the least cases has now recorded 189 new cases in the last two weeks, resulting in a total of 513. West Pokot and Elgeyo Marakwet, which are the last two counties with least cases, have recorded 55 and 25 new cases respectively over the same period.

“I cautioned that the sooner we change our behaviour, the better since we risked rolling back all the gains we have so far made in the fight against this disease. It seems the chickens are coming home to roost now.”

Counties that are currently hard-hit include Nairobi, Mombasa, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu, Nakuru, Kajiado, Kisumu, Trans Nzoia.

In a statement on Sunday, Kagwe confirmed that 17 more patients had died, raising the death toll to 1,013.

However, 231 patients recovered from the disease, 130 from the home-based care programme, while 101 were discharged from hospitals, raising recoveries to 37,194.

In terms of the distribution of cases per county, Mombasa recorded the highest number with 203, followed by Nairobi with 202, Busia with 95 and Nakuru, Kiambu and Bungoma with 18 cases each.

Kilifi, Kisumu and Embu recorded 17 new cases each, Kajiado 15, Kakamega 14, Kwale eight, Machakos six, Kirinyanga five, Kericho, Murang’a, Taita Taveta, Turkana, Nyandarua and Tana River had four cases each, Homa Bay three, Isiolo and Kisii two each while Garissa recorded one case.