Eighty-nine per cent of the new covid-19 cases reported on Thursday are asymptomatic, CAS Mercy Mwangangi form the Ministry of Health has said.
She was peaking during the daily briefing where the 796 new cases reported from 6,754 samples were tested over the last 24 hours.
“…..This disease is in the community and that people might have it but it does not show,” Mwangangi said.
The CAS said the youngest case is a year old child while the oldest is 87 years old.
World Health Organisation said last month that how most of covid transmissions are from people with no symptoms is still a “big unknown.
Evidence suggests people with symptoms are most infectious, but the disease can be transmitted even before the signs develop.
The CAS also reported that three patients succumbed to the virus, raising the number of fatalities in the country to 263.
Mortality rate is at 1.7% and Ms. Mwangangi urged Kenyans to normalize seeking medical attention whenever they feel unwell.
“…we’ve received several reports of patients who are afraid to seek medical care and we are witnessing cases where people are rushing to hospitals at the last minute,”.
Mwangangi said such patients succumbed to the virus because medics can not intervene at the appropriate time.
The ministry also reported that 378 more patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country so far to 7,135 .
Of the recoveries, 199 patients were from home based programme and 179 from various medical facilities.
