President Uhuru Kenyatta has postponed the 5th Extra-Ordinary Session of the National and County Governments Co-ordinating Summit tailored to review the curve of COVID-19 infections in the country and the effigacy of lifting the inter-county movement restrictions.
In a statement posted via social media handles, State House announced that the summit has been postponed from Friday, July 24 to Monday, July 27,
State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena Mararo announced that the rescheduling was requested by the Council of Governors (CoG).
Kenyans were anxious with the expectation being that the government would lock down the country again following a surge of infections after the movement restriction measures were lifted.
On July 6, President Kenyatta eased the restrictions including movement into and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area (NaMATA), Mombasa and Mandera Counties. He however announced a continuance of the nationwide curfew to reduce the spread of the disease.
Uhuru was however categorical that should the cases shoot up such that the disease poses a threat to the country’s health systems, the measures currently in place will be reversed.
“In the next 21 days we shall study patterns of interaction and spread of the disease. Any trends that signal a worsening of the pandemic, we shall have no choice but to return to lock down at zero option,” said President Kenyatta.
It seems though that the decision to ease the movement restrictions has backfired as Kenya has reported new cases in their hundreds on a daily basis since.
On Saturday, Kenya reported 688 cases of Coronavirus – the highest number in a single day- and 603 new cases on Sunday, July 19 reeking of trouble ahead.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has indicated severally that COVID-19 is expected to peak in late August or early September,a factor which informed the decision to close schools until next year.
Thus far, 44 out of the 47counties have confirmed COVID-19 cases with Baringo,West Pokot and Samburu the only devolved units yet to report case.
The meeting between the national and county governments will also assess how prepared counties are to be able to weather the storm if worse comes to worst.
Each county was expected to have at least 300 isolation beds for COVID-19 cases.
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