Kenya has recorded its first death by the hand of the novel coronavirus.
The patient was a 66 year old Kenyan male who had long-term medical condition, Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe said.
“The man had been admitted at the Aga Khan Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
The man who was suffering from diabetes arrived in the country on March 13, 2020, from South Africa via Eswatini,” Mr Kagwe said in a statement.
The news came a while after the CS had just announced that one coronavirus in the country victim recovered.
Research shows coronavirus is particularly dangerous to older adults and people with chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart and lung diseases.
The first published piece of research into the coronavirus (Covid-19) involved a small amount of people and it showed that 19 percent of those who died in hospital after developing the condition also had diabetes.
The recovery was of a 27-year-old woman who tested positive to the virus on March 13. Codenamed patient zero, for being the first recorded case in Kenya, her recovery gave the country a much-awaited hope against the pandemic.
Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi said the latest cases were all female Kenyans and close contacts of previous reported cases.
Three new cases confirmed on Thursday are all ladies aged between 30 and 61, according to the Health Ministry’s Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Mercy Mwangangi.
Of the three new cases, two are from Kilifi County and are said to have come into contact with a previous patient who turned positive. The other case is from Nairobi.
Mr Mwangangi said that the government was tracing about 1,029 persons who came into contact with the infected.
Since the first case was confirmed, 123 people have been discharged after completing the required 14-day quarantine period.
Eighteen patients are admitted at Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi.
“We urge people to strictly observe social distancing especially in areas emerging as hotspots such as Kilifi,” Dr Mwangangi warned.
The CS also said that the government had placed more than 2,000 people who arrived in the country this week on mandatory quarantine and that they shall be tested in due time.
The Chinese study was carried out at two hospitals in Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and only involved 191 people, of whom 137 were discharged and 54 died.
Further analysis showed that 48 percent of those people had presence of one or more additional conditions, with hypertension being the most common health complaint (30 percent), followed by diabetes (19 percent) and then coronary heart disease (8 percent).
Five counties have been marked as hot spots for the deadly COVID-19 virus after three more cases were confirmed bringing the total tally to 31.
The five counties are Nairobi, Mombasa, Kajiado, Kilifi and Kwale.