Kenya Extends Covid-19 Containment Measures; Cases Remain High

The rise of the highly contagious Delta variant has forced Kenya to indefinitely extend Covid-19 containment measures.

The latest move dents hopes of opening up and returning to pre-pandemic life.

Kenya’s Ministry of Health extended the nationwide daily 10 pm to 4 am curfew indefinitely.

“The hours of the ongoing national curfew continue across the country from 10 pm to 4 am across the country. This applies now to the counties in the lake region as well,” Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said.

In June, the government revised curfew hours for  13 counties in the Western region from 10pm to 7pm.

He stated that infections from the Delta Variant have spread across the country.

Other counties, including Kiambu, Kajiado, Lamu Nairobi, Muranga, and even Tana River, have seen an alarming surge in cases.

The National Emergency and Response Committee on Coronavirus (NERCC) disclosed that the weak link in the fight against the pandemic is non-compliance of individuals to containment measures, protocols and enforcement of the same.

His warning came as Kenya registered a further 1,068 daily COVID-19 infections on Thursday with a positivity rate of 14.4 per cent, a day before the government had planned to ease all lockdown measures.

Kenya’s total confirmed positive cases are now 201,009 and cumulative tests so far conducted are 2,116,979.

In the new Covid-19 containment guidelines issued, all public gatherings including political rallies are suspended, as well as intergovernmental meetings.

“If we do not take care of ourselves, then our hospital systems will be overwhelmed and at that point, there is nothing the doctors will be able to do,” CS Kagwe said.

Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said vaccine nationalism “has really shown how unequal the world is”.

According to President Uhuru, “Nobody is going to be safe until everybody is safe. We need to come up with a way that there will be vaccine equity.”

He emphasised the need to release the intellectual property rights relating to Covid-19 jabs to be released to allow Kenya to manufacture its own supplies.

“On top of that, they have surpluses but are still not ready to share them with the rest of the world.

That is the height, like I said, of nationalism, that really has been felt and this is something that we are fighting and we are going to fight day and night until we ensure that there is equity.”