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As East African countries witnessed a surge in cases of Delta variants, hospitals became overwhelmed.
Kenya said it would extend the night curfew and ban public gatherings and face-to-face meetings to slow the spread of the coronavirus and warned that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed.
In recent days, the East African country has witnessed a surge in cases of the Delta variant. As of Friday, the positive rate was 14%, compared with about 7% last month.
“Public gatherings and face-to-face meetings of all nature are suspended nationwide. In this regard, all governments, including intergovernmental meetings and conferences, should be converted to virtual meetings or postponed within the next 30 days,” Health Minister Mutahi Kag Wei said in a televised speech on Friday.
He said that unless serious measures are taken, there is a risk that the positive rate will rise further.
“We continue to implore all Kenyans, including those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, not to relax their vigilance,” Kagway said after the meeting of the National Coronavirus Emergency Committee.
“We are all responsible (to) lower the case,” he said.
Since the pandemic first hit last March, Kenya has been under some form of curfew [File: Brian Inganga/AP]Religious gatherings will still be allowed, but only to one-third of the capacity of the venue.
Since the pandemic first broke out in March last year, Kenya has been under some form of curfew, and Kagwe stated that it will be extended from 10pm local time to 4am nationwide until further notice.
In total, Kenya has recorded more than 200,000 cases and 3,910 deaths.
The hospital is overwhelmed
Kagwe said at a press conference that hospitals are under pressure due to increased infections and urged the public to observe hygiene measures to stay safe.
Kagwe said: “If you are sick today, you will not get a hospital bed,” adding that efforts are being made to increase the number of intensive care beds.
“I’m not scaring you, I’m telling you reality.”
Like many of its neighbors, Kenya took swift action against COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, restricting the movement of people and closing borders and schools.
But the number of infections is rising every day, because politicians who are one year away from the election are holding large-scale rallies across the country.
Like many places in developing countries, Kenya’s vaccine promotion has been slow, partly because of insufficient supplies.
Kenya has vaccinated 1.7 million people, of which 647,393, or 2.37% of adults, have been fully vaccinated.
It is expected to receive more vaccines starting next week, including 700,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom, Greece and Latvia.
The Ministry of Health said that once storage facilities for handling these vaccines are in place, it will receive 1.76 million doses of vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech two weeks from now.
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