It was a new face, that of the Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Ministry of Health of Kenya, Dr. Rashid Abdi Aman, on Friday 24 April, to announce to the national media at the usual press conference at Afya House that 16 people tested positive for the Covid-19 virus in the last 24 hours across the country.
As a result, the total number of people infected in Kenya has risen to 336.
At the same time, Abdi Aman revealed that there have been no new deaths and indeed five people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of nationally recovered people to 95.
From the information provided, all 16 new cases have been identified through the Ministry's surveillance team, which retrieves as many names of family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances of those already infected. Eleven of them were in Nairobi and five in Mombasa. No other citizens found positive for the swab in other parts of Kenya, despite the fact that almost 1000 tests were carried out (the highest number since checks began in Kenya) in 12 counties. The new cases have activated controls on a further 887 people who will be tested in the coming days.
With regard to the distribution of cases in the districts of Nairobi, the poor area of Dandora, where the largest landfill in Africa is located, reported 5 cases in the city centre 2, in Eastleigh, an Islamic district called "Little Mogadishu" one case, in Parklands 2 and Pipeline area 1.
In Mombasa the five cases are distributed in as many districts.
Dr. Abdi Aman confirmed that according to the statistics available to the Department, people with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory dysturibi are the most susceptible to contracting this virus.
"We urge people with these conditions to fully follow precautionary measures to prevent COVID-19, with great discipline - said Abdi Aman - Adopting a healthy lifestyle is important now more than ever.