The threat of a third wave of Covid-19 in Kenya is far from being a reality.
This is stated by the heads of the World Health Organization, and one could even be skeptical about this statement if one did not consider a fundamental fact that is causing cases and deaths in western countries to drop exponentially: the number of vaccinated people.
Africa, which has reached 4.8 million cases and 130,000 deaths linked to the virus, has vaccinated only 3% of its population and does not yet have well-defined plans to increase immunization of its citizens.
This contrasts with the global trend that, in order to "reset" the situation of travel, business and interaction between countries, must also be able to consider the African continent as a safe partner. However, for many reasons, including the current reluctance of Europe and the more developed countries to provide vaccines to the poorer ones, this is not happening.
In Kenya, too, vaccinations are not taking place and only in these days the booster shots are being administered to 200,000 people, who are the most at-risk categories that have priority, such as health workers and government employees.
At the same time, however, private vaccines, which could serve to make safer various sectors of the Kenyan economy, such as tourism for example, are still not allowed.
Poor people do not trust the vaccine and do not want to go to the hospital. You can not force those who disagree to consider the virus more dangerous than many other diseases that claim victims every day in Kenya and the rest of the continent with numbers far worse than Covid-19.
We wait to see how the situation evolves, hoping for the awareness and responsibility of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior.
Yesterday, Saturday, June 5, Kenya recorded 383 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours from a sample of 3,930 swabs, with a positivity rate of 9.7%. This now brings the total number of positive cases to 172,325, and cumulative testing conducted to date is 1,830,686.
In terms of cures, only 33 patients are cured of the disease, 15 from home care and isolation, and 18 are from various healthcare facilities.
The total number of healings in the country is 117,502, including 85,306 in home care and isolation and 32,196 in various health facilities.
Of note, however, is that the country has lost 24 patients to the disease in the last 24 hours, all of whom were reported by late reports that emerged after conducting facility record checks on various dates in April and May.
This now brings the total number of deaths to 3,264.
A total of 1,184 patients are currently hospitalized in various health care facilities across the country, while 4,942 patients are in isolation and home care. Another 95 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen, including 88 in general wards and seven in high dependency units.
To date, a total of 975,265 people have been vaccinated nationwide.
Of these, 295,486 are aged 58 and older, 277,776 are health care workers, 166,199 are teachers, and 82,720 are security officers.
As for the second dose, as of Saturday, a total of 6,622 have received their second dose. Of these, 4,046 are health care workers, 709 are aged 58 years or older, 445 are teachers, 321 are security officers while 1,101 fall into the other category.
In terms of distribution of positive cases by county, Kisumu leads with 54, Nairobi 53, Kisii 37, Kilifi 33, Kericho 29, Uasin Gishu 22, Migori 19, Siaya 17, Busia 15 and Nandi 14.