A female nurse who travelled from Nairobi to offer “essential services” in Nakuru was on Monday arrested alongside her boyfriend and forced into quarantine for 14 days.
According to the police, the man’s neighbours in Shabaab area reported the woman to the county health surveillance team who nabbed the lovebirds and took them to quarantine.
The nurse in question reportedly identified herself to police manning roadblocks on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway and told them she was going to offer essential services in Nakuru.
For now, the identity of the said nurse and where she works has been kept under wraps.
The government has restricted movement of persons and passenger vehicles into and out of Nairobi except for cargo trucks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
In March, the government – while announcing a 7 pm to 5 am daily curfew – said outlined those offering essential services in 13 areas who are exempted from the order.
Health workers are among essential service providers allowed to travel out of the capital and operate past curfew hours and are categorised.
At least 263 medics have tested positive while 15 have died across Africa in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, putting into focus the safety of first-line responders to the scourge.
More than 100 doctors and nurses have died from Covid-19 globally, including Gita Ramjee, a Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher in HIV prevention in Africa.
COVID-19 in Kenya
Kenya’s coronavirus tally has risen to 963 after 51 people tested positive in the last 24 hours. During the Tuesday press briefing, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the number of recoveries rose to 358 after 22 patients were discharged from hospitals.
No Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours.
The minister announced Mombasa has the highest rate of Covid-19 deaths recording 27, followed by Nairobi (20) while Siaya, Bomet and Kiambu have one fatality each.
Analysis of Kenya’s corona data shows children are the least infected followed by the elderly aged above 60 years.
The move by Kenya to close the Kenya-Tanzania border to passenger traffic has however not augured well with Tanzanian authorities who in retaliation issued orders barring Kenyan truckers from entering Tanzania.
Yesterday, Ministry of Health said 182 of 214 coronavirus cases registered at the Kenya-Tanzania border were detected among foreign truckers mainly from Tanzania, none of who were allowed into the country.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said this explains why President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the mandatory screening of truckers at border posts before being cleared into the country.
Kenya also closed its borders with Somalia, following increased coronavirus cases at Wajir which borders Somalia.
“If we would not have taken the action of testing at the border these 182 people would now be moving around the country and you can, therefore, imagine what this would have caused,” said Kagwe.
Namanga border point registered 126 cases, Lunga Lunga (24), Loitoktok (5), and Isebania (4).
East African Community Affairs Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohammed said cargo trade between Kenya and Tanzania will continue uninterrupted but insisted each truck driver will be subjected to a coronavirus test.
