This archive report was first published on 18 July 2020.
Published on July 18, 2020, Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has urged citizens to take collective responsibility in combating the spread of COVID-19 as the country confirms a record high number of infections.
Speaking in Embu County, CS Kagwe announced that 688 more patients have tested positive for the novel coronavirus within the last 24 hours from 4,522 samples.
The new patients include 425 males and 263 females, with the youngest being 7 months old and the oldest 95 years.
The Nairobi Metropolitan area still leads in the number of infections with 7,298 cases so far, followed by Mombasa (1,812) and Kiambu (725).
CS Kagwe added that 450 patients have also recovered from the disease within the last 24 hours, with 401 of them being under home-based care and another 56 being discharged from various health facilities.
This takes the total number of coronavirus recoveries to 4,440.
Three more patients, however, succumbed to the disease, bringing the country's fatalities to 225.
CS Kagwe urged Kenyans to take responsibility for their actions, saying, "You save me, I save you. Wewe niokoe, na mimi nikuokoe; let's save each other, take the responsibility of saving your friend, your child, your parents."
He also emphasized the importance of knowing one's COVID-19 status before interacting with others, saying, "When you go very close to somebody and you don't know whether you're positive or negative, then you're not saving them."
