COVID 19: Alarm as infections rise in East Africa

Numbers of Covid-19 cases are rising again in East Africa even as countries bank on vaccinations to prevent another round of restrictions.

Over the past one month, Kenya’s positivity rate has risen from zero to more than five percent, the level which the World Health Organisation (WHO) often considers threatening.

Kenya recorded a positivity rate of 7.2 percent on Thursday, the highest in four months. And the average positivity rate in the past seven days is 5.7 per cent.

More people have in recent days been showing up for testing and the highest was 3,317 people out of which 218 tested positive for the disease.

So far, government officials say the new wave is mild and may lead to less hospitalisation compared to previous waves. As of June 8, only eight people were hospitalised in different facilities in the country. No patient is currently in either the intensive care or high dependency units. Around 1,239 patients are in home-based care.

The experts also attribute this new wave to the change in weather as the country is experiencing a cold season as well as the BA.2 sub variant, which is more infectious than Omicron.