The Mombasa County government in partnership with the Tourism and hospitality stakeholders have launched a vaccination campaign targeting at least 3,000 tourism and hospitality workers in the region.
The exercise was launched yesterday at Kaderbhouy Health Centre at Makadara grounds within the Mombasa Central Business District (CBD).
The exercise which began last week, before the official launch, is being spearheaded by the county departments of Tourism and Health.
Mombasa County Tourism Chief Officer, Aisha Abdi, said that the safety of hotel workers and guests is a priority to the county, as they continue with plans to revive the industry.
She said that the Mombasa tourism industry has proven to be resilient and unbowed during the pandemic and they are more than ready to put efforts to ensure that the industry bounces back to life
“We will continue working closely with the stakeholders to revamp the industry, which contributes over 8.8 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” she said.
Mombasa County Health Chief Officer Pauline Oginga said that Mombasa had so far recorded 78 positive cases of Covid-19 in three days of the month of May.
Oginga said in the month of April, the County Health Department has been moving round the hotel facilities within Mombasa to inspect them to ensure that they adhere to Ministry of Health protocols on combating Coronavirus.
For the second year in a row, the tourism sector has been struggling to stay afloat due the the adverse effects of Covid-19 pandemic which has caused massive losses in terms of revenue and a lot of staff have lost their jobs.
Since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the country, more than 4,000 jobs are reported to have been lost within the hotel industry, as many facilities have been forced to scale down operations or to close down their businesses.