Kenya will not ease the current containment measures prematurely, the cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Health Mutahi Kagwe said on Friday though the number of COVID-19 positive cases has declined slightly in the last 30 days since the government announced stringent containment measures to help contain the third wave of infections.

Kagwe said the country had registered a marginal drop in positivity rate since the new containment measures including restricted movement, the extension of night curfew hours, and a ban on public gatherings took effect.

"The results of the measures are encouraging. In that period, the positivity rate has gone down from about 20 percent to about 16 percent, the number of patients relying on oxygen has dropped, the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) occupancy rate is slowly decreasing, and the fatality rate has also come down," Kagwe said in a statement released in Nairobi.

Kagwe said that Kenya will not ease the current containment measures prematurely to avoid a relapse into surging infections and fatalities that were witnessed in March. 

Enhanced vigilance, ramping up vaccination and strict adherence to public health measures like hygiene, wearing of masks and physical distancing were crucial to sustaining a low positivity rate.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on March 26 placed Nairobi and four other counties deemed COVID-19 hotspots under lockdown to help tame rising infections and fatalities that threatened to overwhelm health facilities.

The Kenyan leader announced a ban on political and religious gatherings, extension of night curfew hours, suspension of in-person learning and operation of bars in order to curb the spread of the virus.

Kagwe said the measures have averted the worst public health outcomes in the country, adding that the government would not relent in their enforcement given the risk of upticks in some rural counties. He said the government would accelerate the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out to boost other public health interventions aimed at containing the pandemic.

He said that 802,760 people had been vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Friday, adding that the government was negotiating for timely delivery of the second batch of vaccine doses.

"We expect to receive the net consignment of vaccines in time for the second dosage," said Kagwe.

Kenya's total COVID-19 caseload rose to 155,165 on Friday after 773 out of a sample size of 7,036 tested positive to the virus while the positivity rate stood at 11.0 percent. 

The national fatalities tally rose to 2,583 after 23 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, with 10 having occurred on diverse dates in the last one month, while 13 were late deaths reported after audits were conducted on health facilities.