Covid-19 infections in the country have been on the rise in recent days, data from the ministry of health shows.
The positivity rate has been relatively low in the last few months with the data showing the percentage was at 0.9 at the beginning of October.
The rate went up to between 1.6 per cent and 2.1 per cent in mid-October before shooting further above the World Health Organisation recommendation of below five per cent in the last week of October.
According to daily reports by the ministry, the rate was 6.8 per cent on October 26, 7.5 per cent on the 27th, eight per cent on 28th, 7.9 per cent on 29th before dropping to 1.9 per cent on 30th.
It then went up to 7.5 per cent on Monday and shot to a record high of 9.5 per cent on Tuesday.
The data further shows that though the number of admissions has been relatively low, the number has also been going up from just one person admitted in hospital mid-October to six people as of Tuesday.
However, the number of patients under the home-based care programme has been on an upward trajectory from 15 people on October 10 to close to 500 as of Tuesday.
For instance, the number of those under the HBC management went up to 113 on October 17, 218 on October 21, 319 on October 26, 370 on October 27, 413 on October 31 and 498 on Tuesday.
To date, the total confirmed positive cases are 339,253 with cumulative tests so far conducted standing at 3,919,622.
“The total recoveries stands at 333,071 of whom 279,451 are from the HBC and Isolation program, while 53,620 are from various health facilities across the country,” the ministry reports show.
The number of fatalities has also remained relatively low. To date, 5,678 have succumbed to the virus since it struck the country in 2020.
Global health expert Benard Muia has attributed the rise in cases to the weather and new variants but noted there is no cause for alarm as the variants are not lethal.
He has however called on Kenyans to continue observing the containment measures such as hand-washing and masking, as well as going for the Covid-19 jabs.
“The weather has changed to be wet and of course, we know respiratory tract infections would increase with such weather changes,” Muia said.
