Mandatory wearing of facemasks in public lifted

The Health ministry has lifted the rule requiring Kenyans to wear facemasks in public places.

However, during indoor meetings, the wearing of facemasks will be required, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced on Friday, March 11.

“It is highly recommended that you should continue wearing facemasks, even when in public. Though, police and law enforcement officers should not harass Kenyans who are not wearing facemasks in public,” Kagwe said in address to journalists at Afya House in Nairobi.

The ministry has also discontinued mandatory quarantine of vaccinated or unvaccinated Kenyans.

The rules had been imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, which broke out in Kenya in March 2020.

Kagwe said the decision to relax the Covid-19 containment measures was arrived at after consulting the WHO, health experts in the country and observance of the positivity rate pattern in Kenya, which has remained below one per cent for nearly one month now.

The Health ministry also suspended mandatory quarantine of suspected Covid-19 carriers.

No tests would be required for vaccinated East Africans entering Kenya, Kagwe said.

The occupancy of social halls such as churches, mosques and meeting rooms can be 100 per cent, the minister said.

Operations in the transport sector, particularly trains and aeroplanes, revert to normal, with the vessels allowed to carry full capacity.

Kagwe said asymptomatic Covid-19 patients need not to be subjected to mandatory isolation.

“I however urge Kenyans to exercise personal responsibility and observe hygiene,” he said.

The minister said the government won’t hesitate reintroducing the tough containment rules if the infection rate surges subsequently.