After the lockdown of 13 counties near the Lake Victoria basin, Kenya is grappling with outbreaks in other parts of the country, which are monitored daily in the hope that the situation does not degenerate as it did in Kisumu and surrounding areas.
Yesterday, in the face of 714 new cases of Covid-19 positivity out of 6,309 swabs analysed, with the rate of positivity rising above 10, to 11.8%, Kakamega County for the first time recorded the highest number of infections, 79 or five more than Nairobi. The lockdown counties together accounted for most of the cases, 411, while the coast did not go beyond 50 positives.
However, there continue to be serious doubts about the reliability, and above all the timeliness, of the data transmitted, especially as regards deaths.
It is the Ministry of Health itself, every 24 hours, to point out that the number of deaths, which yesterday for example was 10, comes from late registrations made in April (!) and May. In any case, the number of deaths now rises to 3447.
At the same time, 285 patients have recovered from the disease; 167 from various health facilities across the country, while 118 were undergoing treatment programmes in isolation at home. The total number of recoveries now stands at 122,631.
A total of 1,073 patients are currently admitted to various health facilities across the country, while 5,174 patients are being treated at home. 94 of the admitted patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 25 of whom are on ventilatory support and 50 on supplementary oxygen. Nineteen patients are under observation. A further 108 patients are separately on supplementary oxygen, of whom 98 are in general wards and 10 in high dependency units.
The number of vaccinated people rose to 1,181,588. Of these, 994,622 received the first dose and 186,966 received the second dose.