Coronavirus will help us improve health care because both the rich and the poor have to be treated locally

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua on Tuesday said that Coronavirus might help the country in the sense that leaders will be forced to improve health care in the country.

Speaking to the press, Mutua noted that no country would be willing to admit a Kenyan leader who has the virus.

“This virus serves as a lesson to us. When our leaders get sick they often travel to London, India, South Africa and the likes.

“Where will they go now?” he asked.

Adding: “We must take care of our health system. The rich and the poor are both equal when it comes to fighting Coronavirus. Nobody will accept you in London…the surgeries and cancer treatment should be done locally.

“It is unfair that every time the rich get sick they seek treatment abroad while the poor are left behind.”

Three more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Kenya bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to seven.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said all the cases are from people who had flown into the country from abroad.

Two of the cases are of a couple that had travelled from Madrid, Spain, on March 4 through Dubai and arrived in the country on March 5.

“Kenyans travelling from other countries will have to sign a legal form saying they will self-quarantine, this will allow the government to jail them should they fail to isolate. Travellers from other countries are the biggest threat,” Kagwe said.

The third case was a Burundian national who travelled from Dubai to Kenya arriving on March 17. The patient recorded high temperatures during the routine screening at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

“That establishes what we have been saying all along, we are able to screen and we are able to pick and we able to determine. So this one was a case in point, an establishment of that fact,” he noted.

Tracing of the individuals who were in contact with the patients is ongoing.