16 more people die of Covid-19, positivity rate goes up

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe. [File, Standard]

Sixteen (16) more patients in Kenya have died of Covid-19, raising the death toll to 5,520.

“All the fatalities are late deaths reported after conducting facility audit records in January 2022,” Health ministry said in a Wednesday, January 19 statement.

At the same time, the positivity rate shot up to 9.8 per cent – from 6.8 per cent the previous day – after 762 people out of 7,780 samples returned positive results.

On a positive note, 657 patients were declared healed of the disease, raising the total number of recoveries to 287,140.

Fifteen (15) out of the 16 new deaths were of patients aged 60 years and above, whereas the remaining one was in the 50 to 59 years age bracket.

Kisii County led in the number of new Covid-19 infections, with 192 cases. Nairobi (148), Bomet (78), Kiambu (52), Nyamira (39), Nakuru (35), Taita Taveta (25), Migori (20), Uasin Gishu (16) and Siaya (15) rounded out the ten most affected counties.

More female patients (403) contracted the virus than their male counterparts (359) in the last 24 hours.

The youngest of the new patients is aged three months, while the oldest is 102 years old.

Out of the 762 new infections, Kenyans accounted for 704 while foreigners were 58.

Kenya has thus far conducted 3.16 million tests, with the caseload standing at 319,011.