Kenya: Departmental Committee holds joint sitting for updates on coronavirus

Kenya's Departmental Committee on Health, in a joint sitting with the Senate Standing committee on Health, met the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mutahi Kagwe to get a status update on the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Some parents of the students stuck in Wuhan, China were also allowed to attend the joint sitting.

Sylvia, one of those parents, said, "Our children have been isolated for 60 days in their dormitories now, and although they are all safe and in good health, they're very stressed and unsettled. As parents, we are pained and we ask the government to find the best way possible to bring them home."

Kagwe said that authorities are in talks with the Ministry of Education to consider the basic hygiene lessons in schools as an important topic to equip students with knowledge of how to avoid contracting coronavirus (COVID-19).

CS Kagwe: we are in talks with the Ministry of Education to consider possibilities of incorporating the basic hygiene lessons in our schools now, to equip students with knowledge of how to avoid contracting COVID-19, And how to handle possible symptoms. pic.twitter.com/lnBMXT5KgV

— National Assembly KE (@NAssemblyKE) March 11, 2020

Adding on Kagwe said that the government has set March 15 as the deadline, upon which all Level 4 and Level 5 hospitals have Isolation Centres to quarantine patients, as part of increasing coronavirus preparedness.