12 more test positive of Coronavirus coming to 122 – Dr. Mercy Mwangangi
KomeshaCorona press briefing by CAS Health Dr. Mercy Mwangangi. 12 people have tested positive of coronavirus bringing the total to 122 in Kenya. A six year old child has died of COVID- 19 complications today.
Today we lost another patient to the Coronavirus disease, a 6 year old male child who was also ailing from other medical conditions & had been admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital . This now brings to 4 the number of those who have died as a result of COVID-19~Dr. Mwangangi.
The child who died had a pre-existing condition. Necessary infection measures have been put in place including quarantine of staff. The area has been disinfected.
In last 24 hours, we have managed to test a total of 362 samples out of which 12 people have tested positive for the Coronavirus disease. Out of this number 11 are Kenyans and one Somali National .
The 12 people have already been moved into isolation in various health facilities and contact tracing has commenced. To date we have managed to test 1433 samples from the individuals currently in quarantine facilities.
The new cases according to Counties is as follows; Kiambu 1, Laikipia 1, Mombasa, Nairobi 7 & Nyeri 1. In terms of gender Eight are males & 4 are females. Nine cases were detected in 3 designated quarantine facilities, while 3 are from suspected cases admitted in isolation units.
The ages of the confirmed cases range between 28 to 68 years.
We have so far monitored 1721 contacts and out of this number 1073 have been discharged.
Currently, there are 648 contacts that we are actively tracing.
25% to 30% of our current transmissions are local transmissions. These are people who had not traveled and had not come into contact with anyone who traveled.
The country is now producing PPEs and masks locally; CS Industrialization Betty Maina. Ministry of Health of Kenya and KEBS has approved them. We are encouraging Kenyans to buy them.
“We have now started manufacturing personal protective equipment and masks for the health care workers & for initial distribution to boda boda, tuk tuks and matatu operators.”
“We have put in place mechanisms to ensure that all products to be used to fight coronavirus are prequalified by KEBS and Ministry of Health Kenya medical agencies.”
“We are appealing to offices and business institutions to minimize the use of hard copies in their transactions & adopt the use of paperless mode especially for letters & other documents.”
CAS Mwangangi: “As we continue with our level of preparedness and response, I would like to appeal to those who are hoarding oxygen cylinders to release them.”
To boost the capacity in Counties, we are advising members of the County Assemblies to halt their conflicts with Governors during this period & focus their energies in equipping the County health facilities in order to aid in fighting COVID-19.
“The County Assemblies must ensure everything is done within the law, but the processes must not be delayed at the expense of procuring services in our county hospitals. “
All Kenyans are advised to wear masks to protect themselves from infection. “The country’s textile industry has capacity to make 60 million masks immediately & the retail cost is not expected to go above Ksh 20 per mask,” Betty Maina, CS Industrialization.
“We have approved the 3 ply masks that has two layers and an inner filter.
The Government is now working on approval of designs for locally manufactured ventilators.”