Kenya has recorded a high of 167 positive cases out of the 2,833 samples tested, in the last 24 hours.

This clearly demonstrates that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done by each and every one of us if we are to stop the rising cases, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe said today.

The total number of positive cases now stands at 2,767 and so far the government has tested  97, 340 samples. Out of the 167 cases 125 are males and 42 females while the youngest is 11 months old, and the oldest is 75.

Today’s positive cases includes, 162 Kenyans, and five foreigners, out of which 54 cases are from Nairobi,  Mombasa, 47, Busia, 28, Kiambu, 14, Uasin Gishu 11, Kisumu, four, Machakos, three, Makueni, Migori, Homabay, Kwale, Siaya and Turkana one case each.

The cases in Nairobi are from Westlands 21, Embakasi South, and Kibra six cases each, Embakasi West, five, Kamukunji and Langata, four cases each, Kasarani, three, Makadara and Dagoretti North, two cases each and Embakasi East, one case.

In Mombasa, the 47 cases are from Mvita, 14, Jomvu, 11, Kisauni, seven, Changamwe and Nyali six cases each, and Likoni  three.

All the 28 cases from Busia are of truck drivers, 22 at Malaba POE and six at Busia border point, the CS said and noted that  Kiambu’s 14 cases are from Kikuyu, nine, Thika, two, Kiambu Town, Juja, and Gatundu, one case each.

In Uasin Gishu, the 11 cases are from Soy, five, Turbo, three, Ainabkoi, Kapseret, and Kesses, one case each, while Kisumu, has four cases from Kisumu Central three, and Kisumu West  one case.

 In Machakos, all the three cases are from Athi River. Migori has one case from Kuria East, Homa Bay one case from Ndiwa, Kwale one case from Msambweni, Siaya one case from Alego Usonga  and Turkana, one case from efugee camp.

The CS announced that today the Government has discharged 46 patients from various health facilities, bringing our total number of recoveries to 752. “However we lost one more patient to the disease, bringing the total fatality number to 84,” he said.

Today marks 90 days since the first case was reported in Kenya and we thank the Nyumba Kumi initiatve for taking serious measures in ensuring that they report cases of individuals who have travelled from epicentre areas such as Nairobi, the CS said.

Dr. Mohamed Kuti, the Chairperson of the Health Committee, Council of Governors (CoG)  also noted that the issue of 300 isolation bed capacity hospital should be taken seriously by county governments and appealed to them to step up their establishment since the number of COVID-19 cases is rising at the county levels.

“So far 36 counties have positive cases in just 90 days into the disease and what this means is that slowly by slowly the disease is permeating into counties,” he said.

He explained that counties defense lies in the ability to strengthen the nyumba kumi and also community health volunteers who are in the frontline and urged the National government to work with counties in testing cases and also getting results quickly in order to manage the disease

The Ag. Director General Ministry of Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth added that the WHO has come up with guidelines on how to discharge the positive cases from health care to home based care.

Although Kenya will customize the guidelines to suit its needs, moving to home quarantine and home isolation care will apply all the measures and not everyone will qualify for home based care, he said.

“Before we roll out the home care based, we will sensitise the community health volunteers on the process online so that once implemented it will ensure those quarantined does not pose a risk to the ones surrounding them. In the next 3 to 4 days we will have trained 57,000 community health care workers, Dr. Amoth noted.

Today’s briefing came as the country was celebrating the National Cancer Survivors’ Day, an annual event held globally to honor cancer survivors and to show that indeed, life after a cancer diagnosis is possible, can be fruitful, rewarding and inspiring.