Students stuck in China city are safe, says State

None of the Kenyans living in Wuhan, a city in China at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak, has been reported as showing symptoms of infection, the government has said.

The Kenyans include 88 students based in the city, which is under lockdown to mitigate spread of the virus. The only people allowed to move about are emergency services personnel and other crew delivering food and other essential supplies.

“Our embassy in Beijing shall continue to offer material and moral support to our students in Wuhan City,” said the Health ministry in a statement.

The statement was released following a Cabinet ad-hoc Committee on Health meeting, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki at Harambee House on Saturday, to review the status of the country’s response to the coronavirus.

The statement said the committee had “reviewed the current global and local situation and wishes to assure that the country is safe from the coronavirus.”

According to the ministry, a student who had been under surveillance in an isolation facility at the Kenyatta National Hospital had been cleared and discharged.

“The surveillance system remains on high alert at all points of entry and health facilities. A two-tier screening is being conducted on all inbound passengers and crew at our international airports. To fortify the State’s response, we’ve enhanced screening at our border points and sea ports,” read the statement.

The disease has spread to at least 17 countries and over 10,000 cases have been reported. More than 300 people have died with the majority from China.

While no African country is yet to report any cases of the virus, the situation still remains precarious and the risk remains potent despite the suspension of flights to and from Guangzhou by Kenya Airways (KQ). Chinese carrier, China Southern Airlines, however, is still operating daily between Guangzhou and Nairobi.

A look at the airline’s booking site showed all flights from Nairobi to China are sold out at least for the next four days, a move that could have been occasioned by the suspension of KQ flights.

The airline also has flights from Guangzhou to Nairobi with stopovers in Changcha.

The Kenya Aviation Workers Union (Kawu) and Kenya Tourism Federation have warned that all flights between the two countries should be suspended.

Kawu Secretary General Moses Ndiema said the safety of their members and that of Kenyans was paramount and must precede commercial considerations.

Last week, many Chinese from around the world traveled to China to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which raises fears some of them may be infected as they travel back to their current countries of residence. After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus as a global emergency, many countries have taken measures to forestall infections.

While issuing an alert in Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although the number of those infected outside China was relatively small, there was potential for a larger outbreak.

Several countries that have evacuated their citizens from China are putting them under quarantine for two weeks to monitor their health. WHO warns that Africa could be hard-hit should the virus find its way to the continent.

“You can easily have a huge number of cases and the system can easily be overwhelmed. This is why early detection is critical,” said Dr Michael Yao, WHO’s emergency operations programme manager for Africa.

On Thursday, Ms Kariuki assured Kenyans the country was prepared to handle the situation.

The next day, the Health ministry released a statement that said samples taken from the student who had been quarantined had tested negative for the virus.

“We call for calm and reassure citizens and everyone residing in Kenya the country is free from novel coronavirus and stringent measures have been put in place to prevent its importation into the country,” said Kariuki.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause not only the common cold but also more serious respiratory illnesses. The incubation period is estimated to between 10 days and two weeks. Symptoms include fever, severe cough, difficulty breathing, impaired liver and kidney functions, and pneumonia.