Health CAS Rashid Aman on Monday, May 18, announced that 25 individuals had tested positive for Covid-19 over the preceding 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 912.
Speaking during the daily Covid-19 briefing at Afya House, the CAS stated that 1,139 samples had been tested during the period bringing the total samples tested in the country to 44,851.
He further revealed that of the new cases, 23 were male and 2 female, with the youngest a 22-year-old and oldest being 50 years of age.
22 Covid-19 patients were discharged over the same period after recovering from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 336.
The distribution of the cases by counties was as follows: Kajiado (6), Mombasa (5), Nairobi (3), Kiambu (3), Kwale (3), Taita Taveta (2), Garissa (2), and Meru (1).
Meru, Taita Taveta and Garissa’s reported cases were the first to be recorded in the said counties, bringing to twenty-three the number of counties affected by the coronavirus.
53 truck drivers also tested positive for Covid-19 at the Kenya-Tanzania border. Of these, 51 are Tanzanians and 2 are from Burundi, with the Health Ministry affirming that they were all turned back to Tanzania.
CAS Rashid went on to urge Kenyans to stick to the directives set out by the Ministry to ensure that the gains made in the fight the pandemic were not in vain.
“We understand that some people find the measures we have put in place uncomfortable. The measures have not been put to punish anyone. I appeal to Kenyans to continue observing them and to support and cooperate with the government,” he urged.
“As government, we are encouraging people to visit to continue visiting preferred hospitals to seek treatment for other conditions as safety has been beefed up,” he further stated.
To mitigate the alarming rate of positive cases emerging at the Kenya-Tanzanian border, CAS Rashid announced that a laboratory is to be set up at Namanga on the Kenya-Tanzania border to speed up testing and releasing of Covid-19 results.
