Covid-19: Five more Kenyans test positive raising number to 189
Friday April 10 2020
Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe updates the country on the Covid-19 disease at Afya House in Nairobi on April 7, 2020. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Kenya's total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 189 on Friday, with the Health ministry's announcement of five more cases.
Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe told a press conference that all the new patients are Kenyans.
Mr Kagwe said only one of the patients, who were among 504 people tested in the last 24 hours, had a history of travel.
He said two are male and three female and that one of the cases was reported in Nairobi and the others in Nyandarua County in central Kenya.
CS Kagwe further announced that 10 more people who had tested negative twice would be discharged from the Mbagathi isolation facility.
As such, the number of recoveries rose to 22.
CASE PROJECTIONS
The government has continued to reiterate the need for the public to follow its directives on curbing spread of the coronavirus, the latest key requirement being wearing masks in public.
The Health ministry warned on Wednesday that the number of Covid-19 cases is likely to go into the thousands and overwhelm hospitals.
Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi said the government still stood by earlier projections that the country could have 5,000 cases by mid-April and 10,000 by end of April.
She said the increased numbers will cause a strain on health facilities, hence the need for home-based care protocols for patients with mild symptoms.
The Covid-19 disease has killed at least 96,966 people worldwide since it was first reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019.
At least 1,619,073 infections and 365,847recoveries have been reported globally, according to Worldometer's count on Friday.