President Uhuru Kenyatta has called on global and international partners not to shut borders again in the wake of the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.
The swift and massive shock of the coronavirus pandemic and shutdown measures to contain the pandemic plunged the global economy into a severe contraction.
In his State of the Nation Address Wednesday inside Parliament Building, Nairobi, the President said Kenya and Africa have done enough to suppress the spread of the virus and it was time to get back to healing the ailing economy.
“To all international and global partners, COVID will not be defeated by locking us down and shutting parts of the world that you think are problematic. Jameni tumefanya kazi na msitufungie tena jameni,” said President Kenyatta.
According to President Kenyatta, no one will be safe from COVID until we are all safe.
This even as Kenya has made strides to build 95 fully equipped laboratories for testing coronavirus down from one at the onset of the pandemic.
“When COVID-19 pandemic hit our country, we had to wait five days for the South African laboratory to send us results. Today, we have moved from one to 95 well-equipped laboratories,” added the President.
The President’s speech comes on against the backdrop of yet another threatening COVID-19 variant that has been detected.
The variant which was detected in Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong has been christened Omicron by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
More to follow…
