This archive report was first published on 5 July 2020.
Kenya's COVID-19 Recoveries Hit Record Low ¶
Week 16 saw the lowest number of recoveries in four weeks, with only 232 people reported to have recovered from the virus, compared to an average of 62 per day in the previous four weeks.
According to the Nation Newsplex analysis, the country's average number of people reported to have contracted the virus shot up to 222 from 125 over the same period, with the highest number of infections in a day reported on July 1, at 307.
The divergence between the infection and recovery curves has introduced a trend which, if not disrupted, will deliver a huge active COVID-19 caseload with the potential of firing up the infection rate and overwhelming the healthcare system.
Kenya ranks 10th in Africa in number of cases (7,577) but climbs up five places to position five in number of active cases (5,182), giving the impression that the country is faced with a stubborn virus that seems to hang around for a little longer than in many other African countries.
However, the country has a death rate of two per cent, mirroring the continent's share of infections that have resulted in death.
Many of the active cases in the country might be people who contracted the virus in the past few days and therefore may not have had enough time to recover, according to the World Health Organization.
Despite the challenges, the Health ministry says there is no need for alarm, with Health director-general Mr Patrick Amoth stating that the recovery rate should not worry people very much, and that they should concentrate on the case fatality rate because that will be telling them the quality of care that they provide to the people.
On a positive note, the country has one thing going for it - 78 per cent of infected persons admitted to hospitals are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and can be managed at home, provided proper laid down procedures are followed.
The Jitenge System has been introduced to relieve health facilities of the mounting pressure brought about by the rapid growth of community transmission of the virus, with hospitals handling only serious conditions while households host and take care of asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms under strict conditions spelt out by the ministry.
However, even though the sharing of the disease burden between health facilities and communities would guarantee hospitals a lifeline, spreading out a high number of active cases into household might not yield the desired results if the guidelines are breached.
Kenya has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Eastern Africa, a region where two countries, Tanzania and Burundi, have been inconsistent in making their COVID-19 statistics public.
On a positive note, the country's average number of deaths reported in a day has stayed between two and five in a month, consistently furnishing a tally that now stands at 159, representing about two in five of the deaths in the region.
