Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday announced that the government has decided to extend the night curfew by 60 days while pledging to ramp up vaccination against COVID-19 as cases surge in western parts of the country, reported CGTN Africa.
During a televised address in Nairobi, Kenyatta said the extension of COVID-19 restrictions including night curfews, a ban on public gatherings, and limited attendance to houses of worship, will help in containing the pandemic.
The Kenyan president said night curfew in 13 western Kenyan counties, which have emerged as the newest coronavirus hotspots, will be maintained from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. until July 31. The curfew in the rest of the country will be observed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. for the next two months. The places of worship have been ordered to adhere to the one-third physical attendance capacity rule.
Kenyatta said the political gatherings will remain banned for the next 60 days. He said all visitors traveling to Kenya will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test certificate acquired not more than 96 hours prior to their arrival in the country.
He added that the Kenyan hospitality industry will be required to adhere to public health protocols aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus.
The president said that visits to hospitals will be limited to one person for every admitted patient. The number of people allowed to attend funerals, weddings, and traditional rites of passage will not exceed 100 persons.
As far as vaccination is concerned, Kenyatta said the government aims to vaccinate 10 million adults by December, adding that it had established the capacity to inoculate 150,000 people daily from August.
He said Kenya has negotiated for 13 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson and the first consignment will be delivered in August.
“Using these vaccines and others in the pipelines, this is how we will vaccinate over 10 million Kenyans by Christmas 2021 and 26 million by the end of 2022,” said Kenyatta.
