Senate suspends physical meetings over rising cases of COVID-19

The Kenyan senate has banned physical meetings for a month to avert the spread of the new coronavirus.

Speaker Kenneth Lusaka said the move was informed by the fears of legislators and staffers contracting the virus.

“We had a liaison committee meeting, which has all the chairpersons of committees, and agreed that all meetings should be held virtually,” Lusaka was quoted by the Standard.

The latest comes just a day after Kenya confirmed 727 more cases of the coronavirus, pushing the country’s total caseload to 21,363.

Of the new confirmed cases, 696 are Kenyans while 31 foreigners: 465 are males and 262 are female.

CS Kagwe stated that Nairobi remains a hotspot and Kirinyaga is also another county where infection rate is rapidly rising.

In addition, he noted that Kiambu, Machakos and Kajiado require strategic support as they are overloaded.

“We took PPEs to Kiambu county yesterday (Friday). Kiambu is in that state and needs national government support due to the number of deaths and cases,” the CS said.

254 patients have however recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of recoveries to 8,419.

88 were in home-based care while 166 were discharged from various hospitals.

County distribution of the latest cases is as follows:

Nairobi 470
Kiambu 64
Kajiado 25
Kirinyaga 20
Mombasa 16
Migori 15
Busia 13
Machakos 12
Laikipia 11
Nakuru, Muranga and Kisumu 9 each,
Nyeri and Siaya 7 each,
Nyandarua, Narok and Uasin Gishu 5 each
Isiolol, and Nandi 4 each
Garissa 3
Bomet, Meru, Vihiga and Homa Bay 2 each
Kilifi, Bungoma, Kisii, Samburu, Trans Nzoia and Kwale 1 each