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Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has announced that Kenya has registered nine new coronavirus cases, bringing the total of COVID-19 patients in the country to 25.
Addressing journalists at Afya House in Nairobi on Tuesday, March 24, Kagwe said out of the nine new infections, seven were Kenyan nationals and two were foreigners.
Three out of the seven Kenyan citizens contracted the disease by mingling with close contacts who had been confirmed as COVID-19 positive, the minister said. The other four caught the disease from foreign nations that they had visited recently.
The Health CS said so far, 98 suspected COVID-19 patients have been discharged after testing negative for the virus after completing 14-day mandatory quarantine period.
The minister said they are still tracing 647 suspected patients, who will be quarantined.
Kagwe said the 25 COVID-19 patients in Kenya were pooled from four counties namely: Kilifi, Nairobi, Kwale and Mombasa.
The patients’ samples were tested at the National Influenza Lab in Nairobi, KEMRI-Nairobi and KEMRI-Kilifi and the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.
The minister said the nine new discoveries came out of 82 suspected carriers tested for the virus.
All the new patients have been taken into mandatory quarantine, said the minister.
"The new patients have already been taken into isolation in our facilities, and are being monitored by our medical personnel, together with others who previously turned positive," said CS Kagwe.
"Fifteen individuals [suspected to be carriers of COVID-19] are currently admitted at Mbagathi Hospital awaiting test results," added the minister.
