Kenya Profile Report: COYOQA Project

Abstract

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.