The government has officially opened the KNH Isolation and treatment facility at Mbagathi hospital in response and preparedness to the rapid spread of the coronavirus in countries globally. The measure is among the raft of measures ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya positions itself to deal with any possible coronavirus outbreak. The facility was opened on Friday by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe who was accompanied by other government officials. Speaking to the press outside the facility, the Health CS said all international conferences and meetings scheduled to take lace in Kenya have been temporarily banned for 30 days, “If a conference involves people traveling form Europe, traveling from the rest of the world, in a conference or meetings with more than 15 people, we’ve asked that we postpone and suspend that for at least the next 30 days.”
The CS has urged Kenyans to avoid non essential travels to high risk countries for conferences or meetings where there will be more than 15 people gathering. So far, countries that have been heavily affected by the coronavirus outbreak are China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, spain, Singapore, USA, with more than 94,000 confirmed case and at least 75 countries with confirmed infection(s). CS Kagwe has affirmed that screening is going on in all entry points including airports, “At all points of entry there is mandatory screening…nobody is going to come into Kenya without screening,”he said, adding that arrangements are being made to screen people at border points. Over 1,100 health workers have been trained to deal with a possible outbreak and some have been deployed at JKIA airport.