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We might post 200 Covid-19 cases a day in Aug-Sept – Govt


The coronavirus situation in Kenya will peak in the months of August and September, the government has warned.

Health Director-General Patrick Amoth, on Thursday during the daily media briefs at Afya House predicted that during the said months, Kenya could register more than 200 cases of coronavirus per day.

The government had earlier predicted the month of April as the turning point for Kenya with an estimation of 10,000 confirmed cases by the end of that month.

“Initially, when we spoke of the peak in April that was our worst-case scenario assuming that we did nothing. But remember we did a lot of things, we closed schools, we imposed the curfew later we restricted movement in Mombasa, Nairobi,” Dr Amoth said.

He added: “And of course our message of prevention control all these have led to a smoother curve rather than a peak rise. We project now that our peak will be around august, September in which case we will be reporting about 200 plus cases per day.”

Dr Amoth said that the infection projection modelling keeps on changing based on the variables at play.

He said the adherence by Kenyans to the prevention measures issued by the government has helped the infection curve not to rise rapidly.

“Remember modelling keeps on changing based on variables that you input. But our wish is to continue with the measures that have been put in place, which has made it possible to have a smoother curve, therefore our health system has not been overrun,” Dr Amoth explained.

He added that the numbers that have recently been reported have been increasing because the Ministry of Health has been able to ramp up its testing capacity.

“The numbers we have been reporting keep on increasing because we have ramped up our testing capacity. Last night we tested 3,102 samples and it means the more we test the more we are likely to pick. So we should be prepared for that scenario,” Dr Amoth said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country currently stands at 1109 after 80 more people tested positive on Thursday.