Kenya reported a total of 411 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday, according to an update by Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe.
CS Kagwe told the daily briefing that 15 more people had tested positive for the coronavirus following the analysis of 1,434 samples in the last 24 hours.
The country tested about half that number of samples a day before, when it reported 12 new infections.
Kenya, which confirmed its first case of the virus on March 13, had tested a total of 21,702 samples from different parts of the county by May 1.
The minister also announced that the number of recoveries had risen to 150 with the discharge of six more patients.
The ministry further said that the number of fatalities had risen to 21 as four more patients had died.
Following the announcement of the start of mass testing in several parts of the country, the ministry took the exercise to Kawangware, a surbub in Nairobi, on Friday.
It noted that the goals of the exercise are identifying and isolating cases as well as tracing contacts.
The ministry described Nairobi’s Kawangware and Kilimani areas as hotspots, saying they had accounted for 13 and six cases respectively by Friday.
Over the last several days, Nairobi and Mombasa have accounted for the bulk of the country’s new cases announced daily.
Out of the 15 new cases recorded on Friday, 11 were in Mombasa.
Regarding cross-border truck drivers, CS Kagwe said they would be re-tested every 14 days amid mass testing targeting hotspots, health workers and restaurants and eateries.
The government ordered targeted mass testing of truck drivers after it emerged that Kenya has been exporting Covid-19 to neighbouring countries.
CS Kagwe also said that more laboratories would be operationalised—in Busia, Machakos, Kitale and Malindi—to enhance the testing capacity.
He further told reporters that the training of health workers would be advanced and that the mass production of personal protective equipment would continue alongside sensitisation campaigns for the general public and the maintenance of travel restrictions imposed so far.
In Africa, the coronavirus had infected at least 39,910 and killed over 1,640, according to Worldometer’s count on May 1.
Since the first case was reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019, at least 3,322,814 people worldwide had been infected by May 1.
The total number of deaths worldwide was 234,408 and that of recoveries at 1,050,408.
The number of active cases stood at 2,037,998, with two per cent or 50,926 of them being critical and the rest mild, a figure lower than April 30’s.
Worldometer’s count showed that the number of closed cases was 1,284,816, with 82 per cent or 1,050,408 being the number of recoveries or those discharged.
