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Drastic steps to tame virus

 

President Uhuru Kenyatta exiting Harambee House after addressing the nation on March 15, 2020 coronavirus. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

All schools were ordered to close and flights from countries with reported cases of coronavirus barred as the country yesterday announced two more cases of the disease.

The only exemption to the flight ban are flights expected in the next 48 hours to take care of those already en route, as well as those that will come in with Kenyan citizens and foreigners with residency permits, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced yesterday.

The closure of schools is effective today for day schools while boarding schools have until Wednesday and universities Friday.

These were among eight new measures the Head of State announced to contain the spread of the virus on the back of two new cases, raising the number of those infected in Kenya to three.

“We have received confirmation of two more cases of the coronavirus. The two have tested positive as a result of coming into contact with the first patient. Our health officials have already moved them to Kenyatta National Hospital isolation facility. The medical teams are closely monitoring the patients, who are in stable condition and responding well to treatment. This gives us hope,” Uhuru said in a briefing at Harambee House. 

The two, he said, were part of the 27 who had been in contact with the first case -nicknamed Patient Zero - a Kenyan woman aged 27, and who flew into the country from the US via London, UK. The 27 people were tested at the National Influenza Centre.

In response to claims of mistreatment, the president explained that those isolated at Mbagathi Hospital were being constantly monitored, briefed and taken good care of. The president did not, however, respond to a question on whether those treated for the virus would be covered by National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). 

"This pandemic will test us, as it is testing all countries in every corner of the world; but I do not believe it will defeat us. If we pull together and everybody does their part, we shall overcome its worst impacts," said Uhuru.

Yesterday The Standard visited the facility and found the group protesting in the compound. A source at the hospital told our writer they were on a hunger strike but we could not independently verify the claims with interviews with those affected because it is a restricted facility. 

The two cases, as noted later by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, are of a Kenyan national, and another of dual citizenship from Britain.

“In fact these are not among the contacts the patient was with after she landed, but she was seated with the two in plane,” he revealed.

First case

The first case was announced on Friday last week. She is a 27-year-old Kenyan, who travelled from the US, Ohio, passed through Chicago, Illionois to London before she boarded a plane to Nairobi, arriving on March 5, 2020.

She has been staying in Rongai. As of yesterday, the patient was in stable condition at KNH as confirmed by the president.

The president said his administration had been monitoring the spread of the virus and even set up the necessary containment and treatment protocols across the country.

Yesterday's directive will affect at least 130 countries, 27 of them in Africa. Globally, the cases stand at above 154,000, with some 5,300 deaths. The virus was first reported in Wuhan, China in December last year.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said while the directive was with immediate effect for day scholars, boarding schools and universities should wait for a circular to be issued today.

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Secretary General Akelo Misori said the decision to close schools was a positive step "that we had demanded in order to end the deep anxiety that had gripped schools".

Meanwhile, anxious passers-by curiously lingered by Hotel Topaz on Nairobi's Moi Avenue yesterday after it was sealed off by a yellow tape and guarded by around six armed police officers, after it emerged that one of the occupants of the hotel, a woman, had made contact with a suspected coronavirus patient.

Initial unconfirmed reports indicated that the multi-agency team monitoring the coronavirus situation had tracked down a woman who had made contact with a Caucasian man isolated at Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi.

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