Kenya’s health ministry on Sunday confirmed six additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of those infected by the virus to 197.
Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary for Health said that the figure was from 766 samples that have been tested by medical personnel in the past 24 hours.
“Of the six new cases, five are males and one is a female.
Five of them are Kenyan nationals while one is a foreign citizen,” Kagwe said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
He said two of the patients have a history of traveling to the Middle East, while one recently travelled from Mombasa and three have no history of travel.
Kagwe said that five of the cases were from mandatory quarantine centres while one was picked by the surveillance team.
The patients are aged between 25 and 59 years.
The official said one more patient was discharged from hospital, bringing to 25 the total number of recoveries.
Kagwe also said that one person from Siaya County in Western Kenya succumbed to the disease that now brings the total deaths from COVID-19 to eight.
He said that contact tracing for people who might have been in contact with the six persons was ongoing, adding that a total of 2,160 contacts had been monitored, out of which 1,660 had been discharged.
Kagwe said 500 contacts were being followed at the moment, adding that a total of 7,449 had been tested since the onset of the disease in the country.
Kenya has banned movements in and out of four counties, closed all learning institutions, including introducing a night curfew among other measures, aimed at containing the spread of the virus.
