The High has issued an order suspending all non-essential flights from China and other coronavirus hot spots from entering Kenya for 10 days.
The order comes minutes after President Uhuru Kenyatta issued an Executive Order over coronavirus, forming a task force comprising of Health CS and counterparts from Defense, Foreign Affairs, ICT and Transport.
The President said that Kenya is an international transport hub with 70 percent of passengers in transit, posing a great risk to those in the points of entry and exit.
“There is a significant threat arising from the potential spread of the coronavirus to Kenya from countries that have new and ongoing outbreaks of the pneumatic disease,” the President said in a statement.
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The task force has been tasked to coordinate preparedness, prevention and response as well as coordinate capacity building of health workers. It will do so by enhancing surveillance at all entry points into Kenya and coordinate supply of testing kits, protective gear and other medical equipment.
He has also ordered that the national isolation and treatment facility at Mbagathi Hospital be completed and ready to receive patients within seven days.
The Cabinet’s Adhoc Committee on Health and Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee on Government Response to the coronavirus outbreak were dissolved.
President Kenyatta also ordered for the identification and preparation of isolation treatment facilities in Level IV and referral hospitals to be completed before March 15.
The task force will be led by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe. Other members include Defence Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo, Transport CS James Macharia and ICT CS Joe Mucheru among others.
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