We anticipated it and it’s now here, how do we slay it?

Nurses at the upgraded wing of Mbagathi hospital in Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

At the tail end of January 2020, a team of technocrats from the Ministry of Health presented an action plan to then Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki for requisite measures to prevent introduction of imported cases of coronavirus into Kenya.

The plan, christened the National 2019 Novel Coronavirus Contingency (Readiness and Early Response) Plan, outlined several possible scenarios that could lead to Kenya reporting its first case of the virus as well as how to tame the scourge.