On December 31st 2019, the Chinese authorities alerted the World
Health Organization of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, China, with an
unknown cause. The mystery disease was first referred to as 2019-nCoV
and then named COVID-19. The virus started to spread to other
countries from 13th January with Thailand reporting its first case then
Japan followed by South Korea. In Africa, Egypt was the first country in the continent to report its first
case on February 14th 2020. The African Union Commission held an
emergency meeting on the COVID-19 outbreak with health ministers
from across the continent February 22nd.
On 12th March 2020 the Government of Kenya (GOK) through the
Ministry of Health (MOH), confirmed the first case of Covid-19 in Nairobi,
Kenya. The suspected patient had returned to Kenya from the United
States on 5th March via London, UK. After a test was conducted at the
National Influenza Centre Laboratory of the National Public Health
Laboratories, the case was confirmed. Further tracking and testing of 27
other individuals who had come into contact with the patient were done.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Health issued a warning stating that cases
would rise exponentially in the coming days, while urging Kenyans to
remain calm and follow the established guidelines.
With special regards to Kenya, topics covered in this report include: Policies, frameworks and programmes on
COVID-19; Budgets released towards COVID-19; Youth engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic; Emerging issues.
Funding
Default funder
History
Publisher
OSSREA
Citation
OSSREA (2021) Kenya Profile Report: COYOQA Project, Addis Ababa: OSSREA