Kenya mulls return to normalcy despite spike in COVID-19 cases

– President Uhuru announced further extension of curfew and lockdowns in select counties until July 6

– The head of state had noted most counties were not well equipped to handle surge in coronavirus cases

– He directed all counties to set up 300-capacity beds in each region as on one of the irreducible minimums for lifting of travel bans

There are indications that President Uhuru Kenyatta may lift certain travel restrictions despite rise in coronavirus recently.

The three months of restrictive movement, ban on physical and social gatherings were some of the measures the government put in place in March to slow down COVID-19 spread.

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President Uhuru during a meeting with advisors and experts. He said reopening of economy will depend on level of counties’ preparedness. Photo: State House Kenya.
Source: Facebook

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The orders will lapse on July 6, when Uhuru is expected to give further directions even though he may extend or simply relax some of the tough containment guidelines.

Speaking during a virtual meeting of the national and county governments coordinating summit, Uhuru dropped some hints.

“We will soon start domestic flights and this is what we will use as our trial in readiness for international travel over the next couple of days,” Uhuru said on June 25.

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The head of state, however, clarified such decisions will largely depend on counties’ level of preparedness to deal with surge in coronavirus infection cases.

“County readiness to respond to new imported cases of infection will largely determine our national readiness to re-open the country as a whole. I say this because the nation is the sum total of all the 47 counties. If the counties have met the necessary thresholds, then the nation will be ready to re-open,” he added.

In his eighth coronavirus address, he noted most counties were not in a position to deal with the spike and directed each county to set up a 300-bed capacity.

“The irreducible minimum for lifting restrictions has three thresholds; one, to open up, the infections must be contained and the number of infections and deaths must be headed downwards. This is currently not the case in our country,” he said.

Governor Wycliffe Oparanya who represented the county boss at the meeting, said only 12 counties had met the 300 per county isolation beds threshold.

The report showed counties across the country had 6,898 isolation beds against the prerequisite of 30,500 as of June 25.

Mombasa (432) Machakos (373) Kiambu (325), Uasin Gishu, (324) and Makueni (312) were some of the counties with most number of beds.

The nationwide curfew was first declared effective from Friday, March 27.

It was extended by 21 days and was to end on May 16, which was expected to on June 6, then later on extended to July 6.

Kenya recorded 247 new cases pushing the tally to 7,188 as on July 3.

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