NAIROBI, Kenya May 20 – The government has extended the cessation of movement in and out of Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate and Mombasa’s Old Town until June 6, in measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections which hit 1,029 Wednesday.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe who announced the extension Wednesday said the continued increase of infections in the two regions was a major concern to the government.
Kenya recorded the highest number of infections on a single day at 66 Wednesday, days after President Uhuru Kenyatta extended the dusk to dawn curfew imposed nearly two months ago.
On Wednesday, Kagwe said the new measures were taken to enable the government assess the progress made so far in eradicating the virus.
“This is essentially to keep the areas contained so that in the next few days we can finally bring some form of control towards those areas so that the disease does not keep on spreading,” he told a regular news briefing on COVID-19.
Kagwe also noted that the government was monitoring the situation in the tows of Likoni and Changamwe in Mombasa after it emerged that the two areas were producing a significant number of infection cases.
Globally, the virus has infected close to 4.9 million people and killed close to 323 thousand others.
Among the measures in place to combat the infections in Kenya is a dusk to dawn curfew imposed by President Uhuru Kenyatta, countrywide, and cessation of movement in and out of Eastleigh, a densely populated suburb in the capital Nairobi, Mombasa’s Old Town area and Mandera in northern Kenya that borders with Somalia.
On Wednesday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced the extension of the lockdown in Old Town and Eastleigh due to the high number of cases which have been on a sharp increase there.
“We are very much concerned about Mombasa,” he said when he announced 66 new infections, the highest on a single day nationally, raising the tally to 1,029.
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