568 test positive for Covid-19, positivity rate at 6.3 per cent

Margaret Cheruto receives Covid-19 jab at Kadheboy Health Centre in Mombasa County on May 4, 2021. [Kelvin Karani, Standard]

568 more people tested positive for the coronavirus out of a sample size of 9,029 in the last 24 hrs.

In a statement on Friday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the new cases represent a positivity rate of 6.3 per cent.

From the new cases, 551 are Kenyans while 17 are foreigners with 344 being males and 224 females.

Kagwe said the youngest is a one-year-old baby while the oldest is 105 years. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 162,666 with cumulative tests done standing at 1,710,414.

Nairobi leads with 142 cases followed by Kilifi with 44 cases, Mombasa (38), Kisii (33), Kericho (30), Nyeri (28), Taita Taveta (27), Uasin Gishu (22), Tharaka Nithi (19), Kisumu (17) and Kiambu (15).

A total of 1,086 Covid-19 patients are currently admitted to various health facilities across the country. 131 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), of whom 28 are on ventilatory support, 83 on supplemental oxygen and 20 under observation.

Another 111 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen with 103 of them in general wards and eight in the High Dependency Units (HDU). 6,381 patients are on Home Based Isolation and Care.

Sadly, 15 more patients have succumbed to the disease pushing the total number of deaths to 2,865 since the first case was reported in the country in March 2020. Of the new deaths, five of them occurred on diverse dates within the last one month and 10 are late death reports from facility record audits.

With regards to the ongoing vaccination exercise, Kagwe said some 911,515 persons have been vaccinated against the disease as of May 7, 2021.

Of these, 531,540 are aged above 58 years, 160,468 are health workers, 142,624 are teachers, while 73,544 are security officers.