National-county COVID-19 coordinating summit to review containment efforts on Friday » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 20 – President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to convene a national and county governments coordinating summit on Friday to review progress made in containing the spread of COVID-19.

Through a statement released on Monday, State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena noted that the summit will assess the state of preparedness in counties and the wider national response to coronavirus in light of a consistent increase in new infections. 

“The Session has been convened following a surge of COVID-19 infections across our Nation; with the disease having now manifested in 44 of our 47 counties,” she said.

The summit will also review the efficacy of the containment measures and assess the impact of the eased restrictions effected on July 6.

“The Session shall be a status conference that shall assess the Counties’ state preparedness within the wider national response to the novel coronavirus pandemic and evaluate Kenya’s overall national response and capacity,” part of the statement issued read.

Kanze Dena further said the summit will consider the evolution of the disease and the medical models on how the disease may propagate within the country in the coming months of August and September.

“The Session shall consider the evolution of the disease and the medical models on how COVID19 may propagate within our Country over the months of August and September 2020,” she added.

During his July 6 presidential address when he lifted the cessation of movement order in the counties of Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera, President Kenyatta urged Kenyans to exercise COVID- 19 prevention measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

He cautioned that failure to exercise personal responsibility may force the government to reverse the order.

“Should the situation deteriorate and pose challenge to our health systems. we will have to revert back to the lock down. For the next 21 days, we will study the patterns of interactions and spread of disease, any trends that signal worsening of pandemic, we will have no choice but to return to lock down at zero option,” President Kenyatta stated.

COVID-19 cases reported since March 14 had risen to 13,353, out of which 5,122 had been cleared by Sunday, July 19.

The President reiterated the need to  apply simple individual and collective measures in order to fight the disease that has so far claimed 234 lives, representing a case fatality rate of 1.75 per cent.

“Kenyans should continue correctly wearing facemasks while in public spaces, apply correct face and hand hygiene at all times, and cooperate with the physical and social distancing guidelines and protocols that have been put in place to safeguard our individual and collective health and safety,” the Head of State reiterated in the emailed statement on Monday.

Kenya’s COVID-19 case fatality has registered a consistent decline from an all-time high of 5.1 per cent in April, 3.4 per cent in May and 2.5 per cent in June.