Kenya suspends all passenger flights from India for 14 days over Covid-19 surge
All passenger flights travelling to and from India has been suspended for 14 days.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the National Response Committee (NERC) arrived at the decision after deliberations following the surge of Covid-19 cases in India.
”The Committee observed the dire events in India and noted the increasing surge of Covid-19 infections in the country. The Committee empathized with the situation and through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed solidarity with the Government of India in dealing with situation. The Committee regretted the events nonetheless and given the obtaining situation, resolved to suspend all passenger flights in and out of the country for a period of 14 days subject to review.” He said
The suspension takes effect on Saturday midnight meaning passengers travelling to or arriving from India have only 72 hours to do so.
” All passengers arriving from India within these 72 hours shall be subjected to rapid antigen testing upon arrival at our ports of entry and shall be required to strictly observe a 14-day quarantine period that will be closely monitored by our health Officials.” He added
He however said cargo flights from India will remain in service subject to observation of transport protocols.
Kagwe, however, said Kenya empathises with India during this difficult time and pledged to support the Asian country in dealing with the situation.
India has recorded 18,160,747 cases of Covid-19 so far with 202,107 deaths.
Other countries that have suspended flights to and from India are; UK, France, Canada, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Oman and Singapore that have either banned travel to and from India.
Meanwhile, the country confirmed 834 people tested positive for Covid-19 from a sample size of 8,498 tested in the last 24 hours.
This takes the total confirmed infections to 158,326 and cumulative tests so far conducted are 1,659,506, with the positivity rate at 9.8 per cent.
From the cases, 805 are Kenyans while 29 are foreigners; 499 are males and 335 are females, while the youngest is a 14-day-old-infant and the oldest is 100 years.
Kagwe, in a statement, noted that 579 patients recovered from the disease; 293 from the Home Based and Isolation Care while 286 were discharged from various health facilities countrywide.
Total recoveries now stand at 107,882; of which 78,500 are from Home Based Care and Isolation while 29,382 are from various health facilities.
However, 23 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours; two of them having occurred in the last 24 hours, 15 on diverse dates within the last one month and 6 being late death reports from facility record audits.
This now pushes cumulative fatalities to 2,688.
