Kenya’s Kisumu Emerges as New COVID-19 Hotspot

NAIROBI - Kenya's western city of Kisumu has surpassed the capital, Nairobi, as having the country's highest number of confirmed COVID-19 infections. The jump in cases comes a day after an opposition leader addressed large crowds in Kisumu, which also reported Kenya's first case of the variant first spotted in India.

According to the Health Ministry, the county of Kisumu is recording a high number of COVID-19 positive cases.   The lakeside city Tuesday recorded almost a third of all 382 positive cases recorded in the country.   Kisumu County Health Minister Boaz Otieno says the outbreak has escalated over past 10 days or so.    “We are a major transmission zone to date," said Otieno. "We have over 4,000 cases that have been confirmed as of the end of last week, and about 3,000 or so of them had been diagnosed in the last seven days.” Otieno blames Kisumu’s increase on the easing of restrictions in the capital Nairobi and surrounding areas. "There was an inevitable rebound influx. Generally, there is a lot of traffic between Kisumu, Nakuru and Nairobi," said Otieno. "So if you confine people and then you release the tendency is people to kind of rebound and go back home.”