The death toll in Kenya from the coronavirus rose to 682 on Friday after 13 more patients succumbed to the disease, the highest number recorded in a 24-hour period over the last few days.

Health Cabinet Minister Mr. Mutahi Kagwe, through a statement, said that 218 new cases had been confirmed after testing of 5,424 people.

This raised the country's number of declared coronavirus infections since the first case was reported on March 13, to 37,707.

So far, the East African country has tested 532,729 samples for the virus.

Mr. Kagwe said 170 more patients had recovered, 91are various health facilities and 79 are currently in the home-based care programme, raising the country's total number of recovered patients to 24,504.

(With input from Kenya's Ministry of Health)