Coronavirus: Kenya announce 28 new cases of COVID-19 two months after first case Nairobi, Monday, May 11, 2020

Ag. Director General for Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth said this will not only ensure protection of the front care workers but also other patients admitted in hospital whose immune status could be compromised.

The announcementcame after the death of a 33 year old in the last 48 hours, the first to be reported within that age group. “When people of such age group pass on at facility level, they put the our health care workers at risk of contracting Covid 19, the DG said and decried the risk of transmitting the infection to other patients in the ward especiallythose with low immunity that are likely to get the infection.

The DG made the remarks during the daily COVID-19 update today that was presided by the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Dr. Rashid Aman who announced 28 new positive cases of coronavirus, from a sample of 841 that were tested in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of positive cases to 700.

From the 28 positive cases 10 cases are from Mombasa, 9 from Kajiado, 7 from Nairobi and 2 from Wajir.Nine of the cases in Kajiado, he explained are all Kenyan truck drivers who were tested at Namanga border point. Five other individuals from Tanzania, he added also tested positive and were referred back to Tanzania.

The spread of the positive cases are spread in several estates. In Mombasa, Mvita has 3 cases while Changamwe, Kisauni and Nyali have two cases each and Likoni has one case. In Nairobi, 3 cases are from Kenyatta National Hospital , 2 from Embakasi East while Kibra and Pumwani have one case each. In wajir, the cases are in Eldas and Tarbaj.

Today the government alsoannounced a discharge of 12 people from hospital bringing the total number of recoveries from Covid -9 to 251. Meanwhile one patient from Nairobi succumbed bringing to 33 the total number of deaths from the disease.

To enhance communication onCovid 19 pandemic, Dr. Rashid also announced the launch of a WhatsApp chat BOT facility, which will contain basic information on Covid-19 and urged wananchi to seek information from the platform through number0110719719 .

During the event the Tourism and Wildlife, Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala who was also present announced that two teams have been established to address the challengesthat are facing hoteliers after the announcementof the new protocolson restaurantsmanagement. Among the things to be discussed isaccommodation to ensure that the reopening of hotels doesnot compromise the government rules.

“We have all agreed that every restaurant and eatery seeking to reopen should access the protocols as published by the Ministry of Health and also agreed that the establishments also develop their standards operational procedures which are compliant with what MOH protocols,”he noted. andexplained that as a government we do not want to burden the business community through the protocolsbut to make sure that the spread of the virus to the public is stopped and the economy does not stop.

In order to ease some of the protocolsgiven by the MOH and also support the economy, the CS said that the cost of testing for the businesses has been reduced to Ksh 1000 from the normal charges of 4,000 that the businesses were being charged.

“There will also be no charges by the Nairobi metropolitan services for inspection of the premises neither will there be any charges for the compliance permit. Once the establishment presents their papers, to counties for their compliance certificates it will take 24 hours for it to be processed so there will be no delay or cost,” Balala said.

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

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