Kenya says no covid lockdown, even as cases increase

Kenya will not impose restrictions like bans after cases of Omicron variants are discovered in two Kenyan travelers and a South African who entered the country last week.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said Kenya had instead campaigned to vaccinate its citizens to curb the spread of the variant.

“We won’t be announcing any bans and new curfews soon. The only way to avoid another lockdown is to get a vaccination, ”he said on Wednesday.

The announcement came hours after he said there were no new variant cases in the country despite rising coronavirus cases.

The positivity rate in Kenya has increased with 799 new Covid-19 cases reported on Wednesday alone, the highest number recorded in a day in the past few months.

Health ministry data shows that the positivity rate – the percentage of tests that come back positive – rose from 6.5 percent on Monday to 10.5 percent when the infectious Omicron variant emerged.

The total number of confirmed positive cases is now 257,614 and the cumulative tests performed so far are 2,902,294.

The variant of Omicron, which scientists say has a high number of mutations, was first discovered in South Africa last month.

Cases have also been reported among travelers in Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong.

The variant has led countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates to impose travel bans on several South African countries against the Council of the World Health Organization.

On Monday, the operator of Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport in Accra announced that airlines would be fined US 3,500 for every passenger they fly in who is not vaccinated for Covid-19 or who tested positive for the coronavirus on arrival Dollars will be imposed.

Kenya’s economy, like others, was hit by the pandemic as Covid-19 restrictions reduced revenues and stifled growth.

Economic output contracted last year for the first time in nearly three decades, hampered by the impact of the coronavirus crisis on key sectors like tourism.