Kenyan president sets crisis meeting over rise in COVID-19 infections

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta announced on Monday that he will convene the Fifth Extraordinary Session of the National and County Governments Coordinating Summit this Friday on the back of a surge in infections and deaths in the East African country.

During a briefing at the State House in the country's capital, Nairobi, Kanze Dena, Kenya's State House spokeswoman, said the summit will assess the county's state of preparedness within the wider national response to the pandemic and evaluate Kenya's overall national response and capacity.

"The session has been convened following a surge of COVID-19 infections across our nation, with the disease having now manifested in 44 of our 47 counties. His Excellency the president calls on all Kenyans to continue applying the simple but yet most effective individual and collective measures that are our nation's best weapon against coronavirus," Dena said.

According to the Dena, those at the meeting will consider the evolution of the disease and the medical models on how the coronavirus may propagate within the country over the months of August and September.

"Kenyans should continue to correctly wear face masks while in public spaces, apply correct face and hand hygiene at all times, and co-operate with the physical and social distancing guidelines and protocols that have been put in place to safeguard our individual and collective health and safety," Dena said.

The announcement came as the Ministry of Health on Monday announced 418 more new coronavirus cases, which brought Kenya's total tally to 13,771 confirmed infections.

It is feared that with the relaxing of coronavirus restrictions, the past few weeks have witnessed a surge in the number of positive cases recorded. The cases are expected to rise exponentially in the coming days after travel restrictions were lifted.

During the Ministry of Health's daily COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Rashid Aman, the chief administrative secretary of the Ministry of Health, said 494 more patients were discharged from the hospital, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country so far to 5,616.

Aman said the country's two most populous counties, Nairobi and Mombasa, continue to have the highest infection rate in the country and this should be enough evidence for Kenyans to adhere to coronavirus social distancing measures and curfew regulations.

Aman also confirmed that 526 healthcare workers have so far been infected since the outbreak of the disease.