The Kenyan government on Monday hailed the impact of the home-based care program in the fight against COVID-19 as the East African nation’s number of recoveries continued to increase.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced that 534 patients had been discharged after full recovery from the disease in the last 24 hours pushing the total number of recoveries past the 13,000 mark.
Out of the 534 recoveries, nearly 90 percent (478) of them were registered from the home-based care program.
“This is a phenomenon that we continue to observe, where home-based care programs are better; people are getting better, faster and, so far so good. This brings the total cumulative discharges to 13,495,” Kagwe said.
In June, Kenya began implementing its home-based isolation and care guidelines for COVID-19 patients to offer a solution in the management of increasing numbers and an anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases.
The government had admitted that its health facilities were being overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 patients.
The government said that most of the cases, which were either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, could be managed at home provided proper laid down procedures were followed.
At the same time, Kagwe announced that the Ministry of Health had recorded 492 new COVID-19 cases out of a sample of 4603, which raised the nationwide total to 26,928.
The death toll from the disease also rose to 423 after the ministry recorded three new deaths.
Kagwe also warned residents of the North Eastern region which borders Somalia to be careful due to the threat of cross-border transmission of the virus.
According to official figures, Kenya remains the worst-affected country in the East African nation followed by Ethiopia.
