Covid-19 is a historic threat that needs us all to contain

Two weeks after our own Patient Zero presented herself to Mbagathi Hospital, we are all preoccupied with social distancing, self-isolation and own health. There is nothing like a major crisis to strip a nation bare and trigger a rethink.

Even before the National Treasury gives its preliminary economic assessment on March 23, we know that the shilling has fallen to the lowest level in a decade. Thousands of workers face mass redundancies in the flower, tourism and export processing sectors and 17.8 million students are at home. County Governments are closing or decongesting night-clubs, markets, hospitals and mortuaries to reinforce the measures being implemented by the National Emergency Response Committee.