Take drastic action to avert needless deaths

After the initial panic associated with the announcement of Kenya’s first case of coronavirus, the country has entered a phase of uneasy calm. It can’t rest easy because the lull is just a precursor to an impending storm. The let-up, however momentary, should allow the government room for reflection; to gauge whether any decision it makes henceforth is people-centric, or is driven by an underlying fear of economic collapse.

The government’s fears are not unfounded. The novel coronavirus has been categorised as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. Anthony Fauci, director of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases describes it as “a respiratory illness that easily spreads from person to person and has a high degree of morbidity and mortality”. He further says that the mortality rate of coronavirus is 10 times that of an ordinary flu.