The Covid-19 caseload in Kenya has risen to 56,601 as 724 new cases have been reordered in the last 24 hours, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said on Monday.
The new patients were found following the testing of 5,085 samples, raising the total number tested in Kenya so far to 704,615.
The youngest of the patients was a year old and the oldest 84 whereas 701 were Kenyans and the rest foreigners living in the country.
The CS has also announced that 248 patients had recovered from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, 178 were in the home-based care programme and 70 at various hospitals across the country. The 248 recoveries raised the country's total to 37,442.
As of Monday, a total of 1,297 patients had been patients while 4,841 were being treated at home. Of those in hospital, 54 were in ICU, 26 of them on ventilatory support and 28 on supplemental oxygen.
Fifty five were separately on supplemental oxygen, 45 of them in the general wards and 10 in HDU.
Mr Kagwe further said 14 people had succumbed to the disease in the same period, bringing the total number fatalities of in the country to 1,027.
He also noted a "sharp increase in the positivity rate", which he placed at 14.2 per cent, and termed the last week as the worst in Kenya's Covid-19 history, noting that close to 100 deaths were recorded.
"We need to rethink measures taken (to curb the virus in terms of) what to escalate and de-escalate. We urge citizens to take responsibility ... sacrifices have to be made and there has to be strict adherence to measures to curtail further spread of the virus," he said.
He added, however, "We are not overwhelmed but Aga Khan and MP Shah hospitals in Nairobi may be because they have a lesser capacity than public hospitals."
The minister said each county will treat its own patients and that none of them will be moved from one part of the country to another.
In terms of case distribution, Nairobi County accounted for 362 of the new cases, Nakuru 46, Meru and Busia 44 each, Kiambu 38, Bungoma 33, Machakos 24, Laikipia 23, Mombasa 19 and Garissa 17,
Marsabit and Kisumu both recorded 10 more infections, Kajiado, Kilifi and Uasin Gishu eight each, Nyeri six, Kakamega, Kwale and Makueni three each, Kisii Murang'a, Nyandarua, Nandi and Isiolo two each, and Elgeyo Marakwet, Kitui, Tana River, Migori and Vihiga one each.
