Too early to celebrate on the fight against Covid-19

Pedestrians are seen without facemasks along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi after Health Cs Mutahi Kagwe announced a lift on mandatory wearing of face-masks in public. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

The Ministry of Health yesterday raised a concern that most Kenyans are no longer interested in Covid-19 vaccination, especially after relaxation of the containment measures. Acting Director of Medical Services Dr Andrew Mulwa said a majority of Kenyans now wrongly assume that the virus is no longer a threat.

When Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced that people may stop wearing masks in public on Saturday, Kenyans dropped their guard immediately. In fact, the ministry reports that only 8,518 vaccines were administered on Sunday, just a day after Mr Kagwe’s announcement. This was a sharp drop from 41,929 administered on Saturday.

If you board a matatu or walk into a restaurant in Nairobi today, chances that you will find someone with their mask on is one out of 10. This is despite Mr Kagwe’s insistence that people should continue wearing masks in enclosed areas.

While this is happening here at home, in China where the virus originated, a lockdown has been imposed on nearly 30 million people, following a surge in cases of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant. Omicron remains a stark reminder that the coronavirus mutates and no research has been conducted indicating that the mutations have stopped. This means a more lethal variant could still emerge and plunge us back to the dark days of restrictions, when we are already celebrating that “Covid is over!”

We need to snap out of the misguided, premature celebration and appreciate the fact that we are not out of the woods yet in the fight against the pandemic. If you are not yet fully vaccinated, go for the jab. According to a Ministry of Health report, only 7,835,495 people in Kenya are fully vaccinated, while another 7,926,069 have only partially received the vaccines. This is against a country population of 50 million, what are the rest of the people waiting for?

Let us also continue wearing masks, especially when in enclosed or crowded places. It is the political season and it is worrying that Kenyans throng political rallies and most of them are without masks. We are clearly treading on very dangerous grounds.

It is encouraging that the Interfaith Council announced that places of worship will continue enforcing the wearing of masks, washing of hands and sanitising during church services. Let us all follow suit in our homes, offices and social areas, and stay safe!