Kenyans in a queue wearing masks. /THE AFRICA REPORT
The government will consider reviewing the existent COVID-19 preventive measures as the country continues recording low positivity rates, two years since the pandemic broke out in Kenya.
Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe, while speaking to Citizen TV on Wednesday, March 9, hinted at abolishing the mandatory wearing of masks across the country as one of the preventive measures.
He explained that the cases recorded are lower, indicating that the country could be heading into herd immunity, despite Kenyans disregarding the wearing of masks.
He added that the Ministry of Health was still carrying out its research with regards to the trends in daily COVID-19 cases before announcing their decision to members of the public.
“The first time I noticed that these people are not wearing masks these days. You wonder what happens next, let’s watch and see.
“Maybe we are slowly developing herd immunity, and as we develop it then you don’t come hard on them. If people are not getting sick, then maybe that is the direction that we ought to be going, this is a decision that we’re going to make in the next few days,” he said.
Some of the research being undertaken includes the positivity rate staying low for some time below five percent in what is termed as flattening the curve. The other research includes equipping hospitals in the event of a resurgence.
“Get your positivity rate at a certain point, get your hospitalization rate and expected hospitalization rate at some point. Get your oxygen supply properly done so that in the event of a resurge this is what happens.
“So that you don’t open up and the following day you have 5,000 people in hospital and guess what, you are not ready for them,” he added.
On the same day, Kenya recorded 14 new COVID-19 cases from a sample size of 5,585 tested in the last 24 hours, marking a positivity rate of 0.3 percent.
Total confirmed positive cases stand at 323,129 and cumulative tests so far conducted are 3,418,275.
36 patients have recovered from the disease, all of them from Home-Based and Isolation Care. This pushes the total recoveries to 317,625.
Additionally, 16,958,872 vaccines had been administered across the country, out of which, 7,895,629 are partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated are 7,752,827.
