Photo Anadolu Agency

ANKARA (AA) - Kenya on Monday confirmed 18 new COVID-19-related deaths and 137 new infections after doing 1,641 COVID-19 tests across the country in last 24 hours.

While 2,871 fatalities from the virus have been confirmed by the Health Ministry so far, it confirmed a total of 160,559 infections from 1.68 million tests done since last year across the country of almost 55 million.

The ministry also confirmed 216 recoveries from the COVID-19 Monday, pushing the total to 109,077 including 79,443 from home-based care and isolation and 29,634 from various healthcare facilities.

On the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the East African country, the ministry said that as of Monday, “a total of 887,034 persons have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19.”

The vaccinated include 516,616 age 58 and over, 158,168 healthcare workers, 137,701 teachers, and 74,554 security officers, according to the ministry’s latest daily update.

On Saturday, President Uhuru Kenyatta, praised healthcare workers for their role in the fight against COVID-19 as the rate of infections in the country falls.

He also announced the lifting of partial lockdown measures imposed last month to curb the spread of the virus.

Restaurants, bars, schools, and religious services will now reopen, Kenyatta said, encouraging employers and businesses to allow employees to work from home. - Ekip/Anadolu Agency

Workers prepare face shields from recycled plastics at the Zaidi Recyclers workshop as a measure to stop the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania May 21, 2020. Photo Reuters/Stringer

Tanzania has installed medical oxygen production plants in its biggest national hospitals to serve intensive care ward patients, including those ill with coronavirus, its health ministry said on Friday.

The plants, which can produce medical oxygen to fill 200 cylinders a day, were installed in seven referral hospitals in a World Bank-backed project, the statement said.

The statement noted that demand for medical oxygen had increased following the oubreak of COVID-19 in the country, whose former President John Magufuli was Africa's most prominent coronavirus sceptic. Magufuli died in March.

Earlier this month, President Samia Suluhu Hassan shifted the country's approach to COVID-19 from the controversial stances of her predecessor by announcing she was forming a committee to research whether Tanzania should follow the course taken by the rest of the world against the pandemic. read more

And on Sunday Hassan said that while that committee continues its work, Tanzanians should follow the public health guidelines for COVID-19 prevention advised globally, namely mask wearing and washing hands. She called on religious leaders to help educate the public on this.

Magufuli died last month after weeks of speculation that he was ill with COVID-19. He urged Tanzanians to shun mask-wearing and denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy, frustrating the World Health Organization. Tanzania stopped reporting coronavirus data in May 2020. - Reuters

LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho takes the Covid-19 jab on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Image JOHN CHESOLI

Twenty-three people suffering from Covid-19 are hospitalised in Mombasa in critical condition, according to a report from the Health department

“Of the 23 people in intensive care units, eight are at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital,” says the report, which was issued on Monday.

It says that in April alone, Mombasa has recorded 975 cases of Covid-19 out of 10,727 samples tested.

Since the first case of was reported in the county on March 27 last year, 10,691 cases have been reported – 7,267 males and 3,425 females, it adds.

Of the number, 252 were healthcare workers. The county has lost three nurses

The number of people who have been discharged from health facilities after recovering are 2,301.  

Cumulatively, Mombasa has recorded 306 Covid-19-related deaths.

Last week, the Ministry of Health listed Mombasa as one of the regions with increasing cases.

Governor Hassan Joho has urged residents to observe the ministry's guidelines in combating the contagion. - Aura Ruth, The Star