210 patients in ICU as Covid cases hit 156,000

HEALTH & SCIENCEBy PATRICK VIDIJA | Sat,Apr 24 2021 17:36:22 EAT

By PATRICK VIDIJA | Sat,Apr 24 2021 17:36:22 EAT

Mandera County ICU and HDU unit ready for patients. Governor Ali Roba announced county was targeting 335 bed spaces for Covid-19 patients.[Standard]

Kenya has recorded 1,153 new Covid-19 cases raising the total number of confirmed cases to 156,318.

The new cases are from a sample size of 9,316 tested in the last 24 hours with a positivity rate of 12.4 per cent.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi on Saturday said of the new cases 1,128 are Kenyans while 25 are foreigner, with 705 being males and 448 females.

Covid 19 Time Series

The youngest is a nine-month-old child while the oldest is 101 years old.

This brings the cumulative number of tests conducted to 1,641,015 since the first case was reported in March 2020.

Mwangangi said 191 patients have recovered from the disease, with 109 being from Home Based and Isolation Care and 82 from various health facilities.

The total number of recoveries stands at 106,284 of which 77,417 are from the Home Based Care and Isolation program while 28,867 are from various health facilities across the country.

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The CAS said on a sad note, the country has lost 20 more patients with five deaths having been reported on diverse dates and 14 are late deaths reports from health records audits.

The total fatalities are now at 2,603.

1,453 patients are admitted to hospitals, while 6,832 under home-based care.

"Currently we have 210 patients are in ICU, out of whom 49 ventilatory support, 130 on supplemental oxygen and 31 patients are on observation," she said.

Mwangangi said another 163 are separately on supplemental oxygen, with 151 being in general wards and 12 in High Dependency Units-HDU.

On Covid-19 vaccination, the CAS said so far 1,020,000 doses out of the planned 3,564,000 doses have been delivered to Kenya.

She said guidance from WHO and the current evidence, shows that taking the second dose at 12 weeks provides a higher immune response and better protection.

"With this evidence and considering the ongoing global supply constraints this shift is justified. As a result, the Ministry of Health has now revised the duration between the administration of the first dose and the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine from 8 to 12 weeks," she said.

So far, 822, 651 people have been vaccinated against the disease.