This archive report was first published on 13 July 2020.
Kenya's Ministry of Health reported a significant increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths on July 13, 2020, with 189 new cases and 12 fatalities.
The total number of cases in the country rose to 10,294, while the death toll reached 197, with 65 patients discharged from various health facilities.
Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe, announced the new strategy during a Ministry of Health briefing at Afya House in Nairobi, citing a severe issue that led to a decrease in testing capacity.
However, Kagwe clarified that health facilities across the country have adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and emphasized that the Ministry has deployed a total of 219 surveillance teams to support contact tracing in all counties.
He also announced the rollout of a web-based application for contact tracing and surveillance, developed in collaboration with development partners, which will aid in rapid contact tracing and quick response to emergency issues.
"We have got more PPEs at the moment than we need. So it’s a question of individual hospitals and individual units ensuring that they have got them," Kagwe said.
"We have not received any information from the management of hospitals in Nairobi that they don’t have PPEs. There’s no issue because we’ve got more than enough PPEs," he maintained.
