Kenya's health ministry on Thursday reported 138 new COVID-19 infections from 4,526 test conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the country's total number of cases to 98,693.

In a press statement on the latest state of the virus situation, minister of health Mutahi Kagwe, noted that of the new infections, 119 were Kenyans while the remaining 19 were foreigners.

He also announced that three patients had succumbed to the disease over the same period, raising the total number of fatalities to 1,723.

Kenya's caseload is the ninth-highest in Africa, only shadowed by tallies recorded by South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria and Algeria.

The East African country's death toll is the seventh-highest on the continent.

The latest figures come as the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) warned that a distinct variant of the coronavirus, entirely different from those detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, could be circulating in the country.

The country is working to secure vaccines in efforts to curb further spread of the virus.

Various government-imposed measures remain in place to help achieve this, including a mandatory wearing of face masks and a nationwide nighttime curfew.