UPDATE: August 5, 2020. 8.00 am – A family from Migori County, which was reported to have 48 positive Covid-19 patients, has received part of its test results.
Advocate Gordon Ogola, who is a member of the family told the media the 20 members had been confirmed positive.
However, some of them are yet to receive their results. The family has already lost one member who succumbed to the virus.
Kenya has recorded 671 more Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of cases in Kenya to 23,873.
During the daily Covid-19 briefing at the Kenyatta University Referral Hospital on Wednesday, August 5, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe announced that 6,200 samples had been tested over the same period bringing total samples tested so far to 329,123.
Of the 671 cases tested, 413 are male and 258 are female while the youngest case is 3 years old and the oldest is aged 94
At the same time, 603 patients have been discharged from hospital bringing the total recoveries to 9,930. 436 were on the home-based care system while 167 were discharged from hospitals.
Regrettably, 3 patients succumbed to the disease bringing the total death toll to 391.
Kagwe noted that two more healthcare workers had succumbed to the disease bringing the total to 10 as he urged counties to listen to medics.
“We have lost 2 healthcare workers…This is like losing soldiers in a war… We urge county governments to listen to murmurs, concerns from healthcare workers with a view of addressing them,” he stated.
Clinical healthcare workers had threatened to down tools on Monday, August 10, after lamenting that county governments had not remitted their May, June, and July salaries.
The CS observed that Mombasa County’s Covid-19 curve was flattening with only 6 cases recorded.
Nairobi County led with 376 cases followed by Kiambu, 112, Machakos, 20, while Kisumu wrapped up the top four most affected counties with 16 positive cases.
Addressing the media, the CS noted that the Kenya University hospital would receive 500 additional beds, 60 of which would be HDU and ICU, 440 would be isolation beds raising the total number of beds in the institution to 1,150.
“I am here today to officially open the Infectious Disease Unit (IDU) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We have an additional 500-bed facility, out of which 60 will be HDU and ICU beds,” he stated.
He also praised Kenyans who had observed the Covid-19 directives noting that most Kenyans had encountered colleagues or family members who had undergone isolation over the virus.
“We recognize the need to hire more health workers and nurses,” he stated noting that the Kenyatta University hospital was looking to expand its staff.
The CS further noted that Nairobi County had reached a critical stage in the pandemic.