Following the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, the Government through the Ministry of Health under the stewardship of Health Cabinet Secretary, Mutahi Kagwe, has issued a mandatory wearing of masks.Kagwe further urged citizens to get vaccinated as the country is entering a sixth wave of the covid virus.
While addressing the press, the health CS Kagwe said Kenyans will be required to put on masks, especially in public gatherings, matatus, churches, offices, malls, and supermarkets among other areas.
“One is required to wear a mask when in contact with other people in closed, confined spaces such as PSVs, aircraft, offices, supermarkets, market places, and places of worship,
“All person indoor meetings to continue at full capacity of the venue but provided that people take measures to be fully vaccinated in order to do so. We are not restricting in-person worship. We also require worshipers to wear their face masks while inside the places of worship,” Kagwe stated.
He said the weekly average record has experienced a hike from 0.6% in May to 10.4% in the third week of June.
“The sharp rise in infections should mean something to our country and we must once again take steps to prevent a slide into a crisis like the one we experienced in 2020 and 2021 when we lost many lives and resources,” Kagwe said.
The Ministry of Health recently recorded 246 new Covid-19 cases from a sample size of 2,484 tests, pushing the daily positivity rate to 9.9 percent.
However, the Ministry of Health with regard to COVID-19 vaccination has managed to fully immunize above 8 million citizens aged 18 years and above while 2.5 million are partially vaccinated.According to Kagwe, those who were administered with booster doses were 404,000 countrywide, a number that is less immeasurable considering the country has more than 50 million people. 31.5% of adults are fully vaccinated while vaccination of teenagers between 15 and 18 years is at 1.5 million.“Regrettably, as I mentioned earlier, the vaccination rate has dropped and this remains an area of concern because the statistics we are holding at the moment with above 77 persons are currently hospitalized in hospitals.“The evidence we have is that most of the ones in hospitals are persons who have not been vaccinated. A lot of the positive cases that we have of persons who were vaccinated are essentially presenting miote symptoms,” the CS said while insisting people should adhere to COVID-19 protocols to avoid the spread of the virus.
