NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 – The health ministry reported the country’s COVID-19 infection rate at 7.9 per cent, having incrementally risen from a 14-day average of 2 per cent during the initial phase of the outbreak in March.
Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi however told new reporters during a regular update on COVID-19 the country was on course to attain a 14-day average of below 5 per cent, a World Health Organization threshold for having the pandemic under control.
She said the infection rate reflected the acceleration in the rate of transmission of the disease with the peak witnessed in July.
“Over the last 34 weeks, the positivity rate has steadily increased from an initial 2 percent at the beginning of the outbreak, to the current 7.9 percent.The observed a plateau between week 28 and week 31 could indicate a peak in the rate of transmission and a steady decline in positivity rate to current week 33,” Mwanangi told reporters.
So far, Kenya, Kenya has conducted a total of 383,132 tests with a cumulative 30,365 cases confirmed since March.
“If we were to look at this 7.9 percent rate, it would be mean that we have about 3 million cases against the country’s population of 47 million.It points out that the curve is not flattening,” Mwangangi said.
Health Director General Patrick Amoth also added that the COVID-19 infection rate among medical staff stands at 2.9 per cent, below global average of 10 per cent.
“So far, 854 healthcare workers have tested positive, this puts the infection rate of health care workers at 2.9 which is fairly low against but of course one healthcare worker exposed is one too many,” Amoth said.
Amoth added that fifteen healthcare workers have succumbed to the virus representing a fatality rate of 1.8 per cent among healthcare workers.
