The Ministry of Health on Thursday announced 538 new cases of Covid-19 raising the country’s total to 24,411.
Health CAS Dr. Rashid Aman said the new cases are from a sample size of 6195. Kenya has so far tested 335,318 samples.
Of the new cases, 516 are male while 22 are foreign nationals. 333 are male while 205 are females. The youngest is a two year old while the oldest is 85 years old.
In the same time frame 514 more patients were also discharged after recovering from the disease. Out of this number 431 were on Home-based care while 83 were discharged from various facilities in the country. The total number of registered recoveries from Covid-19 currently stands at 10,444.
Eight more patients also succumbed to the deadly disease in the last 24 hours raising the number of fatalities from Covid-19 in Kenya to 399. Six patients had underlying conditions while two did not.
While marking World Breastfeeding Week, Aman said most newborns do not develop severe or critical illness if infected with coronavirus.
He said most infants if infected with Covid-19 are asymptomatic or show mild disease and recover rapidly.
He said breast milk is the best source of immunity for infants and it is essentially important for infected babies.
“Transmission of this virus via breast milk is highly unlikely. Research has shown that the benefits of breast milk substantially outweigh the potential risks for Covid-19 transmission,” he said.
