Persons diagnosed with coronavirus in Kenya is affecting ‘more productive members’ with 114 falling between the ages of 30 to 59 in terms of age distribution, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Mercy Mwangangi says their data from the 179 confirmed COVID-19 cases, three of them are aged below 15 years, 49 are between 15 — 29 years while 114 of the patients are aged between 30 — 59 years. Patients above 60 years of age are 13.
“When we look at our age distribution, these coronavirus disease is actually affecting the more productive members of our society. Only 13 are above 60 and therefore, a large number of the population falls below this. Meaning, we need to take charge and observe the various interventions we have put in place,” said Dr. Mwangangi.
On Wednesday, the ministry confirmed seven more patients to have tested positive for the coronavirus raising the total number of cases in the country to 179.
The 7 new cases are all Kenyans among them, three males and four females.
Out of the seven, two had traveled from the USA, one from Congo and the other from the UK.
“Two of the cases emanated from our mandatory quarantine facilities while five were picked by our surveillance teams,” said Dr. Mwangangi.
Dr. Mwangangi said a total of 2,004 persons have been monitored, out of which 1,426 have been discharged with 538 currently on follow up.
Home-based care for mild cases
The Ministry said it will soon issue guidelines on home care for patients with the suspected novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection presenting with mild symptoms, and management.
Dr. Patrick Amoth, “We are developing home-based care guidelines for COVID-19 and when we are done we will bring counties up to speed so that we can manage mild cases at home.”
“The home-based care protocol will be launched soon, we are validating it in the next 24 hours so that sociologists do an assessment on how suitable the home is,” he said.
“From our statistics, the majority of our cases have been mild.”
