The Kenyan health ministry on Friday announced the people of Kenya are now allowed to ditch wearing face masks in open places, reported The East African. The government had imposed mandatory mask-wearing in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak in the country.
The Kenyan Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the wearing of face masks in open public places had been lifted and full in-person worship for vaccinated persons restored as long as all those attending are fully vaccinated.
People have, however, been asked to wear face masks while attending indoor events as well as while traveling using public means of transport. Other health measures including social distancing and hand washing and sanitizing will remain in place.
“Kenyans are encouraged to wear face masks while attending indoor functions. We should now also see the temperature checks in public places stopped,” Kagwe said.
He added that all in-person indoor meetings will now resume at full capacity. The isolation of confirmed cases and mandatory quarantine practice has also been stopped.
The Kenyan health minister said the inter-faith council would provide more guidelines on the resumption of services.
He said the Covid-19 measures that have been imposed for the last two years have helped in saving thousands of lives.
“Our measures in conjunction with counties have saved lives,” Mr. Kagwe said at a press conference in Nairobi. “Based on guidance from WHO, we have contained the virus and as you can see in the last month, the positivity rate has been below one percent.”
The relaxation in coronavirus measures follows a significant decline in Covid-19 infections in the country. The positivity rate has continued to be under 5% in the last month.
The Kenyan government has urged to get vaccinated with more than seven million people fully vaccinated, comprising 28.5% of the general population of adults.
