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Ministry of Health, Kenya
Source: Ministry of Health, Kenya |

Coronavirus - Kenya: 237 Kenyans arrive from India Nairobi , Friday May 8, 2020

The overall number of samples that have been tested in the country so far are 29,430

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 9, 2020/APO Group/ --

The Government has confirmed arrival of 237 Kenyans who had gone to India for treatment and announced that similar flights are expected into the country in the coming days.

Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) , Dr. Rashid Aman confirmed that 237 Kenyans came back into the country yesterday night, accompanied by their caregivers and family and were received by the Ministry of Health staff who facilitated their accommodation in hotels at the government expense as they were being processed to proceed for home based self-quarantine.

Speaking during the COVID-19 media today the CAS announced that the Ministry will continue to conduct targeted testing in high risk areas and revealed that 14 people out of 922 samples tested in the last 24 hours have tested positive of coronavirus bringing the total number of Covid cases to 621. All the positive cases are Kenyans aged between 11 months for the youngest and 49 years for the oldest and 9 are males while five are females.

The overall number of samples that have been tested in the country so far  are 29,430, the CAS added and revealed that so far 19 counties  have been affected with Machakos County being the latest to report a case.

In the latest results Nairobi has recorded 10 positive cases, Mombasa 3 and Machakos one. Thirteen cases were picked by the  surveillance teams while one case is from the quarantine facility.  Four  of the cases in Nairobi are from Kasarani, two from Makadara and one each from Umoja 1, South C and Irigu in Dagoretti South.  Machakos has one case in Athi River and Mombasa  3 cases in Likoni.

He also reported 5 discharges bringing to 202 the total number of people who have recovered from  COVID-19.  He thanked the health workers for their dedication and courage that has led to this achievements and called on the Kenyans to support the recoveries.

Dr. Rashid  also noted that the Government is working on expansion of testing capacity in all the Counties to enable truck drivers to be tested from the point of origin of their journey and also announced that the Government is working with County Governments and other agencies to educate the people who have been displaced by floods on containment measures against Covid-19.

The Acting Director General, Dr. Patrick Amoth disclosed that 34 health care workers out of 621 have tested positive  either directly  or  indirectly for Covid 19, equivalent to about 5.5 percent of the cases in the country but non has died so far.

He also explained that out of the over 29,000 tested cases, around  21,000 are index or primary tests while the others are repeats for the patients in recovery.

He confirmed that the testing that is being done in high risk areas of Eastleigh has gone down since yesterday because of the shortage of kits but assured that the shipment of 8,064 tests kits is expected this evening to cover more than 16,000 more tests by Wednesday next week.In order to recognize the patriotic fight for the health caregivers, ABSA bank through their Managing Director Jeremy Awori today donated 220,000 masks for medial health workers and another 10,000 N95 masks to support the front line health care workers in Kenyatta National hospital, Mbagathi, Kenyatta University referral hospital and Mombasa Coast General hospital.

“The PPE  is critical in day to day fight for health care workers and this donation that is worth Ksh 15 million will support the health care workers who are doing a diligent job in difficult circumstances,,”  Awori said. Recently the ABSA bank also donated Ksh 50 million towards the Covid 19 emergency fund.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Health, Kenya.