Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna on Monday told those who had plans to bury their loved ones upcountry to make arrangements to do so in the city.

This is after President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that there will cessation of travel in and out of Nairobi as part of a plan to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

“Anybody who might be having a body to bury out of Nairobi may have to bury that body in Nairobi. Anybody who had gone outside Nairobi will have to find alternative arrangements,” said Oguna.

Earlier, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor clarified that families which lost loved ones to COVID-19 will be given only 24 hours to pick their loved ones from the mortuary.

Failure to do so will see the government bury the body.

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“To avoid a situation where we have so many bodies lying in the mortuary and these are bodies that are potentially infectious we came to that decision of having that directive that bodies be buried within 24 hours of death,” he said.

Adding: “As government we are going to assist the family transport the body to the place of burial so the question of cost will not come in… Just in case nobody appears within 24 hours we are going to bury the body at the nearest cemetery to where the person died.”

In his address to the nation on Monday evening, President Uhuru Kenyatta said Nairobi accounted for 82 per cent of the total infections while the Kilifi, Kwale and Mombasa counties account for 14 per cent hence the order.

"To contain and limit the spread of the disease to other parts of the country, the National Security Council has sanctioned and caused the issuance of the following additional measures, as follows: That there shall be a cessation of all movement by road, rail or air in and out," President Uhuru announced.

He said that travel restrictions in and out of the Nairobi Metropolitan area would begin on April 6, 2020 at 7pm while in Mombasa, Kilifi, and Kwale counties the directive will take effect on Wednesday evening.