Kenya is at high risk of an outbreak caused by a new virus lurking in China, if travel inflows from the Asian country are anything to go by. The coronavirus has put the world on high alert with countries increasing fever checks at airports amid fears of a bigger outbreak.
With Kenya Airways operating a non-stop flight twice a week between Nairobi and Guangzhou, China’s third-largest city and a key hub of the country’s southern region, the country needs to ramp up measures to block the disease.
Government statistics show that the number of international visitors through all points of entry in 2019 shot up to 2,048,834 compared to 2018, when arrivals were 2,025,206. Neither the Health ministry nor the Kenya Airports Authority has issued an alert.
China has confirmed human-to-human transmission in the outbreak of the SARS-like virus as the number of cases soared and authorities Tuesday said a fourth person had died. The news came as the World Health Organisation said it would consider declaring an international public health emergency over the outbreak. Read more…
