Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi on Thursday, May 14, announced that 21 individuals had tested positive for Covid-19 over the preceding 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 758.
Speaking during the daily Covid-19 briefing at Afya House, the CAS stated that 1,486 samples had been tested during the period bringing the total samples tested in the country to 36,918.
All the new confirmed cases were identified as Kenyans.
CAS Mwangangi further announced that 3 people had been discharged after recovering from the virus.
“I am saddened to announce that we have lost another 2 patients, both from Nairobi County, bringing the total of deaths to 42 people,” she further stated.
Distribution of the 21 new COVID-19 confirmed cases in Kenya was read out as; Mombasa (12), Kajiado (4), Nairobi (4), and Uasin Gishu (1).
The 4 cases in Kajiado stood raised concern as they were identified as Kenyan truck drivers.
“There are 14 males and 7 females, aged between 7yrs to 79yrs old,” CAS Mwangangi elucidated.
The Health CAS had started off by highlighting the rising concern regarding the porous nature of Kenya’s borders, and the huge risk posed by infected individuals coming in from other countries.
“Our porous borders are the ones that have become the latest high-risk areas in the transmission of the disease and they are now our key area of focus,” she remarked
“We appeal to communities living within and around border counties to actively exercise the Nyumba Kumi community policing. We should be vigilant and report individuals using panya routes to get into the country,” she pleaded.
“Additionally, 8 truck drivers who got tested at both Namanga and Isebania borders tested positive for COVID-19 and we’re referred back to Tanzania,” she added.
She went on to thank the government surveillance teams and health workers for their vital role in combating the virus.
“One of the issues we are addressing is providing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to protect our healthcare workers, other issues and demands are on the table and are being discussed to avert the strike on Monday, May 18,” she elaborated.
Quizzed on the latest announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO), that the pandemic was gradually morphing into an endemic that would be present for the foreseeable future, CAS Mwangangi responded by revealing that the government was mapping out a plan on how to live with the virus.
“Indeed, this virus may be with us for a long time to come and therefore it requires us to maintain our current containment measures and to ensure that we can actually chart a way forward as to how we are able to actually live with the coronavirus,” she explained.