Acting Health Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth has said coronavirus will reach its peak in Kenya in August or September.
Speaking at Afya House on Thursday, Amoth said the peak could have occurred sooner were it not for the measures put in place to prevent the spread of the virus.
Kenya on Thursday recorded 80 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of positive cases to 1, 109.
“All the preventive measures that have been implemented have led to a smoother curve rather than a peak-rise. Otherwise, our peak would have come earlier. We project our peak will be around August to September. We will be reporting about 200 or more cases per day. That is if we continue with the measures and interventions that we’ve put in place today.”
“The preventive measures have made it possible to get a smoother curve. Therefore, our health system has not been overrun. If we continue to enforce preventive measures, we’ll be able to cope if we reach that peak,” Dr Amoth said during the Covid-19 briefing.
Dr Amoth thanked restaurants staff and owners for adhering to the measures put in place, noting that the opening of eateries had no significant effect on the new cases, attributing it to the cautiousness.
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“When we opened the restaurants based on the modelling curves we have done, it did not have any major impact on the number of cases. We want to thank restaurant owners for taking the initiative of developing standards and protocol and implementing them to the letter,” Dr Amoth added.
He said the number of coronavirus cases in Kenya keeps increasing because the testing capacity has been increased.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe announced that they had tested 3, 102 samples, the highest tested within 24 hours since the pandemic broke out in Kenya on March 12.
“We have established community transmission, it means the more we test the more we are likely to reach coronavirus peak. With that in mind, it will not be a surprise to get more than 100 coronavirus cases if we test more than 4000 samples. We should be prepared for that scenario,” he concluded said.
