Covid-19 cases at an all-time high as 1,259 test positive

Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi. [Health Ministry]

1,259 people have tested positive for the coronavirus today, from a 8,081 sample size conducted in the last 24 hours.

The number is the highest posted this week, with Kenya’s positivity rate now at 15.6 per cent.

1,224 of the new cases are Kenyans while thirty-five are foreigners.

The country now has 203,213 confirmed Covid-19 cases and at least 2,132,355 tests conducted since the onset of the disease.

Some four hundred and ninety-eight patients have also recovered from the disease, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said in a statement. “357 were discharged from the Home-Based Isolation and Care program and one hundred and forty-one are from various health facilities,” he said.

This brings total recoveries to 188,936.

Five patients have succumbed to the disease, one death occurred in the last 24 hours while five are late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits on diverse dates in July.

The Covid-19 death toll is now 3,931.

“1,469 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, while 3,965 are under the Home-Based Isolation and Care program.  One hundred and eighty-five patients are in the ICU, forty-three of whom are on ventilatory support and eighty-six on supplemental oxygen. Fifty-six patients are under observation,” the ministry added.

On vaccination, Kenya has administered 1,723,727 vaccines so far.

1,062,413 are first doses while 661,314 are second doses.

Only 2.45 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated,

The government hopes to upscale the inoculation exercise countrywide even as it received 410,000 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine from the UK government today.