This archive report was first published on 15 June 2020.
Kenya's Covid-19 cases have risen to over 3,500 after 137 new cases were announced on Sunday. The cases were confirmed from 3,167 samples.
The new cases include a 46-year-old man from Kebirigo in Nyamira County, who is the first confirmed Covid-19 case in the county. He sneaked into the county from Nairobi and was picked up by multi-agency teams from the county, who received an alert from community policing members.
“Unfortunately his sample specimen sent to Kemri-CDC Kisumu on June 12, 2020 returned a positive result for the coronavirus over the weekend,” said Nyamira Governor John Nyagarama.
The patient was transferred to the Nyamira County Referral Hospital's isolation centre, where he is currently admitted. Contact tracing is ongoing to identify and safely quarantine all possible contacts.
“Contact tracing is ongoing both within and outside the county to ensure all possible contacts have been identified and safely quarantined. The 14 contacts are quarantined at the Nyamira Kenya Medical Training College Campus,” said Mr Nyagarama.
Nyamira now becomes the 39th county to report a confirmed Covid-19 case, 89 days after the first case was detected in Kenya. The county has a 17-bed Covid-19 isolation centre, which was officially opened a week ago.
Residents of Nyamira County have been thanked for obeying and following public health regulations, which have enabled them to keep off the virus for three months despite its presence in neighbouring counties.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced the new cases while on a tour of Othaya in Nyeri County.
And in Kisumu, a staff of a telecommunications service provider also tested positive for the virus. The patient is admitted to the Jaramogi Odinga Oginga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) isolation ward.
