Intensive care units are slowly emptying out, vaccines are running out, the percentage is falling, and people are hurrying to close the borders with India to avoid the arrival of variants that could upset the all-too-satisfactory data, which, however, mainly concern the counties still in lockdown.
For some time now, the Ministry of Health has not been able to provide a list of deaths from Covid-19 that have occurred in the last 24 hours. The data transmitted always refer to registrations that arrive at the Afy House headquarters with a delay of days and in the end are always cumulative data.
In any case, yesterday the number of victims of the virus in the country rose to 2,665 after an additional 22 citizens were counted.
There are only 511 new cases, but the number of swabs is also relatively low at 4,020, a rate of 12.7%.
There are 1,365 patients currently admitted to various hospitals across the country. Another 6,926 are following the home care programme.
The most positive figure, as announced, concerns intensive care. For the first time in two months, the number of occupied beds has dropped below 200. As of today, there are 192 seriously ill patients in hospital. Of these, 35 are intubated.
Another 184 patients are in other wards on supplementary oxygen.
Apart from Nairobi, which recorded 107 cases, Mombasa returns to second position with 63 positives, followed by Kericho 36, Kisii 34, Nakuru 29, Kiambu 22, Bomet 20, Kisumu 19, Makueni 18, Nyamira 16, Kitui 16, Turkana 15, Siaya 13, Mandera 11, Embu 10, Kilifi, Uasin Gishu and Machakos with 7, Busia, Kajiado, Garissa, Kwale and Nyandarua 6, Laikipia 5, Murang'a 4. Nyeri, Bungoma and Kakamega 3, Meru, Migori and Homa Bay 2 and finally Nandi, Narok, Marsabit, Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and Kirinyaga 1. In the meantime, 467 patients have recovered from the disease, 385 of them from the home care programme, while 82 have been discharged from various health facilities.
Vaccine situation: to date, of the 1.8 million doses distributed in the country, about 840,000 have been used. Each hospital still has a few thousand vaccines available, which should be finished this week, especially those in the coastal region and the counties near the national parks, where the staff of hotels and tourist facilities who have been admitted to the first cycle of the programme are being vaccinated.
There is no news regarding the booster vaccinations: for now, Minister Mutahi Kagwe has guaranteed that the second doses will be administered with only one month's delay. In any case, the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine means that this is as far as we can go.
The import of a compatible vaccine from the United Arab Emirates is also being studied.
In the meantime, there is concern about the situation in India, which is also the source of the problem of the non-arrival of other vaccines that had been promised and which the Covax programme for developing countries is trying to remedy. Yesterday Kagwe officially asked his government to close the air borders with India and an official statement was expected today. An official statement was expected today, but it has not yet arrived. This emergency solution seems inevitable if we want to avoid an upsurge of cases whose danger for the African people and on Kenyan soil is not yet known.