The percentage of cases per swab is decreasing, especially in Nairobi, but for Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe this is not enough, especially because there are other counties where infections are increasing day by day and which are also less organised in terms of health care.
So the Minister has asked the Governors of those counties to apply more restrictive measures towards their population and to tighten controls to contain the surge of cases of the third wave.
According to Kagwe, citizens in Murang'a, Uasing Gishu, Nyeri and Siaya counties are not adequately complying with the restrictions.
If we can contain the cases by implementing the recommendations to the letter," he explained, "and if we continue in the direction we are going, then it is likely that we will come down to the recommended flattening rate of five percent that WHO says is the rate we should be aiming for in order to hope to return to normal. At the moment, the conditions are not right for reopening the country and calls by a section of Kenyans to do so are premature.
Kagwe added that other factors such as hospital admission numbers and the occupancy of intensive care beds would be crucial to the relaxation of the restrictive measures. And although the percentage since the five-county closure has now halved, from 20 to 10 per cent, the conditions are not yet in place.
"There is a lot of pressure to get some areas opened up," he pointed out, "but I think we should be guided by science and be backed by facts rather than feelings. For now we have no choice.
Kagwe then spoke on the issue of delays in the delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines from India and the possibility of acquiring vaccines from other companies.
"We are appealing to Kenyans to be patient with us, because this is not our country's problem, it is a global problem. Most countries in Africa are already stopping vaccinating their citizens because of the lack of vaccines, but this is not because they have not booked or purchased the doses, but simply because there is a supply problem."