Kenya announced its first coronavirus case. A 27-year-old female national went home after traveling to the U.S. via London, according to Health Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.
Kagwe said that the patient, Kenya's first coronavirus case, was diagnosed on the evening of March 12 at the government’s national influenza center laboratory.
“The case was confirmed on the 12th of March,” he said in the capital, Nairobi. “The patient is stable, her temperature has gone down to normal."
“She cannot be released ... until she gets negative,” Kagwe added.
The infected woman is confined and receiving treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, the government’s biggest health facility.
The government tracked the people who were exposed to the woman, particularly the other passengers on the same flight. The government response team will also observe their temperatures for the next two weeks.
After the announcement, shoppers reportedly flocked to a Carrefour outlet near the United Nations office and purchased hand sanitizers and soap.
Public events in Kenya
Kagwe also announced that the government had suspended all public gatherings, sporting events, open-air religious meetings and “all events that are of a huge public nature”.
He explained that schools will stay open but no inter-school events will take place.
“Going forward there will be some inconveniences that citizens are going to experience,” he said.
These changes refer to a state requirement for public transport vehicles to place hand sanitizers for passengers and cleaning of the vehicles. Foreign travel will also be banned.
“In any event (there will be) no travel at all to the areas, the disease epicenter countries,” he said.
Kagwe also warned traders: “This is not the time to make abnormal profits by charging abnormal prices.”
The coronavirus cases in Sub-Saharan Africa mostly involved foreigners or nationals who had traveled abroad. There are also concerns about the continent’s ability to manage the spread of a virus that already infected 127,000 and killed 4,700 worldwide.
