Kenya’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported 1,127 new confirmed coronavirus cases pushing the nationwide total to 123,167 cases.
With the new cases being reported from a sample of 5,393, the positivity rate stands at 22.1 percent, nearly five times the threshold set by the World Health Organization of five percent.
According to the ministry, 1,090 patients are currently admitted in various health facilities countrywide, while 3,224 patients are under the Home-Based Isolation and Care program.
“The number of those seeking hospitalization in our public and private facilities as a result of complications associated with the coronavirus disease has in the recent weeks shot up,” the ministry said in a statement.
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“This means we are experiencing more cases of infections that are widespread among our communities.”
The statement came hours after the country’s doctors’ union warned that the country’s healthcare system was already stretched given the fact that there were inadequate ICU units and personnel to handle severe cases.
The ministry also reported 25 COVID-19-related deaths pushing the cumulative death toll to 2,048.
To date the country’s COVID-19 recoveries stand at 90,586.
The ministry also condemned reports of private hospitals demanding huge sums of money from people in need of critical care before admission them to their intensive care and high dependency unit facilities.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Rashid Aman termed the actions of such hospitals as “unethical and unacceptable”.
“The responsibility of medical facilities and health care workers is to save lives. It is not to profiteer from ailing and poor Kenyans. This mentality of putting money ahead of our people’s lives must stop. That is where other countries like India beat us,” Dr Aman said.
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