Uhuru chairs national security council crisis meeting to discuss coronavirus
The National Security Council has ordered the recruitment of additional medical personnel on emergency bases contract and inclusion of national government administration officers (Ngao) to bolster the government’s efforts to control the spread of coronavirus.
The medical personnel will be recruited and retained to support the precautionary management measures to enhance surveillance and check any possible spread of the coronavirus in the country.
The administrators will be tasked with enforcing the State’s directive on public gatherings and mounting surveillance and monitoring from sub-location to the national level.
In a statement through state house spokesman Kanze Ndena, the country’s top security advisory organ chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta said it made the decision on Friday morning after receiving a report from the National Emergency Response Committee on Covid-19.
National security infrastructure
The council resolved that the national security infrastructure shall be mobilised to back the emergency team on all the control measures announced by Health CS Mutahi Kangwe on earlier.
All Ngao in the country, right from national to sub-location level have been tasked to immediately operationalise that all the measures announced by the committee including continued public awareness on the role of hygiene in the prevention of the spread of coronavirus.
They were also tasked with spreading discouragement of mass gatherings and meetings and continued monitoring and surveillance.
The top security advisory council said the government will do everything possible to ensure an effective response to the global challenge of covid-19.
The council urged Kenyans to remain calm but remain vigilant, keep good hygiene, observe self-quarantine where necessary under the law and observe the precautionary measures announced by the World Health Organization and the National Emergency Response Committee on Covid-19.
One female coronavirus patient has been quarantined at the Kenyatta National Hospital after she was confirmed to have the virus seven days after arriving in the country from the US.
On Friday, Kagwe banned all public gatherings across the country.