There are 140 coronavirus-positive patients on the loose – Dr Amoth

As of Friday, May 29, Kenya had registered 1, 745 COVID-19 cases. If you added the number of patients hospitalised (671), those who were discharged (438) and those who succumbed to the disease (62), it gives you 1, 171.

The disparity between the two figures – the 1, 745 announced by the Ministry of Health, and 1, 171 from the addition of the announced active cases and closed cases – is what has left Kenyans questioning how the Ministry arrived at the two contradicting tallies.

Acting Director-General of Health Dr. Patrick Amoth says the 1, 171 gotten from simple addition excludes: 1) the COVID-19 patients receiving treatment at home, 2) foreign COVID-19 patients tested in Kenya, but decided to receive treatment in their home countries, 3) Confirmed COVID-19 patients, who at testing stage, gave the Ministry of Health officers wrong contacts, and are now at large, and 4) the COVID-19 patients, who are not under home treatment, or hospital treatment, but are waiting to be admitted at isolation facilities across the country.

“This (contradicting figures) is not only unique to Kenya alone. We have had challenges, even in the developed countries, when it comes to reporting the number of COVID-19 cases,” said Dr Amoth while addressing journalists at Afya House in Nairobi on Friday, May 29.

“As of today (Friday, May 29), the total number of [COVID-19] cases [in Kenya] stands at 1, 745. The total number of persons admitted in 37 hospitals across the country stands at 671. The total number of discharges is 438. The total number of deaths is 62. [That brings to 1, 171 the total number of publicly-known cases].

“There are various patients, who are in isolation at home, either because of age or because they are breast-feeding small children, or they are pregnant, and as a result, may not be well-managed in a hospital environment. This number stands at 130. This figure also includes the patients, who went to foreign nations such as India for treatment. Upon returning to Kenya, based on our risk-profiling, we decided that a given number of them could be managed at home.

“There is this critical group of people who gave us wrong contacts during COVID-19 testing. One hundred and forty (140) of them returned positive results for coronavirus.

“We also have a group of foreigners and truck drivers, [who tested positive for coronavirus upon being tested in Kenya], but their respective governments requested they be treated in their countries of origin. This group is made up of 30 patients.

“The remaining 274 cases are in the process of being admitted to the various isolation units in the country. In order to avoid this [confusion about COVID-19 cases] in the future, we have refined our templates to be able to capture this data real-time.”