Kenya’s total number of COVID-19 infections have reached after the country reported 15 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The new cases were announced by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe as the East African country embarks on a mass testing drive.
Kagwe, while urging Kenyans to continue adhering to the guidelines set to curb the spread of the disease, also noted that his country was concerned by Somalia’s COVID-19 situation.
“The area around Somalia is a worrying case and that’s why we have isolated Mandera just to save them from that (importation of cases),” Kagwe said in his briefing.
Somalia has so far reported 582 cases and 28 fatalities, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures from the Horn of African country show a 171 disparity in the number of cases, with Kenya having seven less fatalities.
Kagwe also reiterated the importance of mandatory quarantine as a way of tackling the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya.
The Cabinet Secretary noted that the government had embarked on a drive to train more health workers to better aid the COVID-19 war, and would also ramp up production of personal protective equipment for those involved in the fight.
“We are also scaling up the training of health workers. We have particularly targeted health workers who are going to use ventilators,” Kagwe said.
Kenya is one of 52 African countries that have reported COVID-19 cases. The continent has registered over 37,000 infections and over 1,600 deaths.
Globally, the number of COVID-19 infections has surpassed 3.2 million, with the death toll surpassing 233,000 and more than one million patients recovered, according to the latest statistics released by Johns Hopkins University.
