The government has postponed a simulation exercise on Coronavirus (Covid-19) preparedness that had been slated for Sunday morning at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and the Infectious Disease Unit at Mbagathi District Hospital.
The health ministry cancelled the plan after the country confirmed its first case on Friday.
According to government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna, the exercise was “no longer necessary” as there was already a patient who had tested positive for coronavirus and was being attended to in isolation at KNH.
“Simulation Exercise at KNH and Mbagathi – Considering there already is a patient being attended to at the facility, the previously planned simulation exercise is no longer necessary and has since been called off,” Oguna said.
The government, through the health ministry, had on Thursday indicated it will carry out a drill on the Covid-19 at Mbagathi hospital in Nairobi on Sunday, March 15 starting 11 am.
The Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had told Kenyans not to panic when they hear ambulance sirens during the drill.
“I do not want when the ambulances start whirling away for people to think that we have a real situation. If you hear sirens along the roads, don’t panic. It’s a drill!” he said.
The country’s first case is a 27-year-old woman who left the Cleveland’s Hopkins’s International Airport to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport aboard an American Airlines Flight for the 40-minute trip.
From Chicago, she again boarded an American Airlines to London’s Heathrow Airport before connecting a flight to Kenya and landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on March 5.
According to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, the woman who hails from Ongata Rongai tested positive for the virus on Friday after presenting herself to hospital complaining about the symptoms she was experiencing.
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