UPDATE: It’s four deaths and not 19, MoH retracts report of Covid-19 fatalities

The Ministry of Health has rectified an earlier report about the death of 19 Covid-19 patients, which would have been the highest number ever recorded in Kenya.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Rashid Aman said that the country had reported only four more deaths, raising the toll to 238.

AN ERROR

“The number is wrong. It is an error, it is four deaths that were recorded today, so I will take back all those stuff about this being the highest number of deaths. Apology, but that is an error,” he said.

The CS had earlier in his daily briefing announced that 19 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours.

The government also announced 418 more new cases of the coronavirus, raising Kenya’s tally to 13,771. The results are from 2,474 samples tested in the last 24 hours.

At the same time, 494 more patients were discharged from hospital bringing the total number of recoveries in the country so far to 5,616.

“We have sadly lost 19 patients over the past 24 hours, highest we have recorded in a single day,” Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said on Monday.

MISBEHAVIOUR

The cumulative number of samples tested in Kenya since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in March now stands at 246,361.

“It seems like the high numbers have not sunk among our people. We have continued to witness misbehaviour by some Kenyans including some of our leaders. Let us not behave like doubting Thomases,” he said.

“Our peak is likely to come in probably late August or early September. That is the working hypothesis that we have now. This is likely to change as we move on and see what is happening in the country,” Dr Aman said.

Dr Aman at the same time also cautioned Kenyans against stigmatising those with the disease saying Covid-19 doesn’t make any distinction on who to infect and doing so will only hamper the government’s efforts to fight coronavirus.

“Over 5000 have turned positive and recovered. There is no reason to stigmatise patients. This will hamper efforts to contain the disease,” he said.

HARDEST HIT

In terms of gender, 263 of the new cases are males and 155 are females. Age wise, the youngest is a one-year-old, while the oldest is 86 years.

Nairobi and Mombasa counties continue to record the highest attack rates. These two counties are the hardest hit.

As of Sunday, Nairobi had 7,744 cases followed by Mombasa with 1,835 while Kiambu with 769 was third.

Kajiado and Busia have also recorded very high numbers.

The disease which was first recorder in Kenya on March 13 has since spread to more than  40 counties.