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89% of latest virus cases are asymptomatic - CAS Mwangangi

How much coronavirus transmission comes from people with no symptoms is unknown.

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by NANCY AGUTU

News23 July 2020 - 13:29
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In Summary


  • • The 796 cases reported are out of 6,754 people whose samples were tested within 24 hours.
  • •This means 708 cases out of the 796 are asymptomatic.
Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi gives the daily Covid-19 updates at Afya House on 28th.June.2020/EZEKIEL AMINGA

Eighty-nine per cent of coronavirus cases reported on Thursday are asymptomatic, CAS Mercy Mwangangi has said.

Speaking during the daily briefing, Mwangangi said the 796 cases reported are out of 6,754 people whose samples were tested within 24 hours.

This means 708 cases out of the 796 are asymptomatic.

"Leading to the emphasis that this disease is in the community and that people might have it but it does not show," she said.

 

The CAS said the youngest is a one year old while the oldest is an 87 years old.

Out of this number,503 were males and 293 were females. .

How much coronavirus transmission comes from people with no symptoms is still a "big unknown", a World Health Organization scientist clarified last month.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said it was "very rare" for asymptomatic people to pass the disease on.

But later stressed this observation was based on a relatively small set of studies, BBC reported.

Evidence suggests people with symptoms are most infectious, but the disease can be passed on before they develop.

Although a proportion of people test positive with no symptoms, it is not known how many of these people go on to infect others.

Mwangangi further said that three more patients succumbed to the virus, raising fatalities in the country to 263.

With a 1.7 per cent fatality rate in the country, Mwangangi urged Kenyans to normalize seeking medical attention whenever they feel unwell.

"In the past few days, we've received several reports of patients who are afraid to seek medical care and we are witnessing cases where people are rushing  to hospitals at the last minute,".

She said such patients have succumbed to the virus since medics were not able to intervene at the appropriate time.

On a positive note, 378 patients have recovered from the disease, bringing  the total number of recoveries in the country so far to 7,135 .

Out of this, 199 patients were from home based programme and 179 from various medical facilities.

 
 

 

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