NAIROBI — Kenya could flatten the COVID-19 curve in the near future amid a consistent decline in new infections and fatalities in the last one month, health ministry officials said on Wednesday.
Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, said the drastic fall in the number of people infected with the virus signaled flattening of the curve, urging caution to avert new flare-ups. “In the course of this month except for a couple of days, we have been at a positivity rate of below 5 percent,” Kagwe said at a briefing in Nairobi. Kenya’s total COVID-19 caseload reached 38, 348 after 130 out of 3,874 samples tested positive for the disease while the national fatalities toll hit 664 after five patients succumbed to the virus as of Wednesday.
According to Kagwe, COVID-19 recoveries were on an upward trajectory and rose to 24,253 after 106 patients including 81 admitted in health facilities and 25 domiciled in home-based care program were declared free from the virus. He said that projections by local epidemiologists were pointing at a significant breakthrough in efforts to contain the pandemic but warned against laxity amid risk of a second wave of infection. “Let me caution that even as we make progress in the fight against COVID-19, events elsewhere across the globe indicate a new wave of infections,” said Kagwe.
Kenya has fast-tracked reopening of learning institutions after six months of closure to avert spread of coronavirus, thanks to a nosedive of positive cases.
The country’s ministry of education on Monday directed teachers to report to school by Sept. 28 to pave way for resumption of in-person learning that is expected to commence in October. President Uhuru Kenyatta will next week deliver an address to the nation where he is expected to outline measures the government has put in place to hasten post-pandemic recovery.
Patrick Amoth, director-general in the Ministry of Health, said that critical indicators like infections, mortalities and recoveries pointed at the possibility of a flattened curve in the not so distant future. He said that fatalities had declined both at community and institutionalized care program based on the latest surveillance from the ministry of health. “We are past our inflection point but we should not throw caution to the wind because we can easily reverse in terms of the progress we have made,” said Amoth.
