Kenya’s COVID-19 fatalities hit 5,082 with 5.4% positivity rate

The number of COVID-19 fatalities in Kenya reached 5,082 on Friday, after the Health Ministry announced 47 new deaths.

The ministry also reported 394 new infections from a sample size of 7,254 tests conducted over the past 24 hours recording a positivity rate of 5.4 percent.

This now takes the total number of confirmed cases in Kenya to 248,069.

Kenya’s caseload in the recent weeks has been placed at the seventh-highest position reported in Africa while the death toll is the sixth-highest on the continent.

In terms of hospitalization, 1,241 patients are admitted in various health facilities countrywide, with 87 of them in the intensive care units (ICU).

In its daily updates, MoH announced, 3,554,424 vaccines which have been administered, with the number of fully vaccinated people standing at 881,563.

3.2 percent of the adult population is now fully vaccinated.

The World Health Orgaization (WHO) recommends COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Africa must rise by over seven times from around 20 million per month to 150 million each month on average if the continent is to fully vaccinate 70 percent of its people by September 2022.

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The 70 percent target was agreed at the global COVID-19 summit hosted by the United States of America on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

COVAX Facility, the global platform which ensures equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, has been forced to slash planned deliveries to Africa by 25 percent this year, due to global supply shortages and export bans.

COVAX shipments are still coming into African countries with 4 million doses received in the past week.

However, only a third of the vaccines that wealthy countries pledged to share with Africa by the end of 2021 have been received.

On September 18 this year, Kenya received 200,000 doses of Sinophram from China. The vaccine is taken in two shots administered 28 days apart.