Lockdown or Shutdown in Mombasa: What awaits Governor Hassan Joho led county as government warn of stringent measures to curb COVID-19

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho’s call to the government to
initiate total lockdown in the fight against Covid-19 seems to be scaling his
way as cases in the county soars.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the county,
governor Joho cried out to the president to have the country go on shut down in
order to keep the virus at bay.

And now, health ministry seems to be moving to that
direction as it records worrying trends of the vius spread in the county.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said on Friday that
the government is looking towards imposing tougher measures to avert the spread
of covid-19, after 11 cases out of the 15 that tested positive turned out to be
from Mombasa.

“Mombasa’s trend is now worrying, and we may have to impose
tougher measures to avert the spread of the virus,” CS Kagwe said.

The government tested 1434 samples in the last 24 hours,
with 15 cases aged between 2-79 years turning positive, as the total number of cases
in the country scaling up to 411.

The country has so far recorded 150 recoveries –a 36.5%
recovery rate and a fatality rate of 5.1 percent from the country’s 21 deaths.

14 counties out of the 47 in Kenya have confirmed positive
cases with Nairobi and Mombasa taking the largest chunk at 91% of all the confirmed
cases.

Wajir, which is very close to Somalia, is the latest county
to record coronavirus case as the government plan to step up steeper measures
to ensure that cases from the neighbouring Somalia spread into the country.

“Judging on the proximity of Wajir to Somalia which has over
500 cases, we are likely to close the border between Wajir and Somalia to
ensure that the virus does not spread,” CS Kagwe said.