Kenya confirms 5 cases of Indian COVID-19 variant

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya's Health Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that it had recorded five cases of the Indian COVID-19 variant in the East African country.

Patrick Amoth, the ministry’s acting director-general, told reporters on Wednesday that those five cases involving Indian nationals had been imported into the country last week before the country banned flights to and from India.

“We picked this from a sample of Indian travelers who are doing some work in the western part of Kisumu. Health teams are doing contact tracing,” he said.

“This variant has been picked in Kenya and because of connectivity, it was just a matter of time. You cannot put barriers to prevent a virus from accessing your territory.”

In the last 24 hours, 489 people, including 40 foreigners, have tested positive from a sample size of 4,426, recording a positivity rate of 11%.

After almost 1.7 million checks, there are now 161,393 confirmed cases.

With 20 more deaths reported over the past day, the death toll reached 2,825, while the total confirmed cases stood at 161,393.

According to the ministry, 1,164 patients are currently admitted to various health facilities countrywide, while 6,603 patients are in home-based isolation.

As of Wednesday, a total of 900,459 persons in the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19.