NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 1- Kenya hs assured that it is ready for business, as it opened the airspace to international passenger flights.
The airspace which was closed in late March over COVID-19 was opened to select countries which have low infection rates, including the China, US, Japan and neighbouring Uganda.
The government said airlines and passengers will be required to strictly adhere to COVID-19 regulations.
“This will include the installation of protection screens on service counters. They will protect our people from exposure, as they serve the client, to ensure everyone has a low chance of getting the infection,” said Mutahi Kagwe, the Health Cabinet Secretary during a press briefing at JKIA.
Kagwe said all measures have been put in place, with airport staff having been trained on COVID-19 emergency and quarantine procedures.
Of the measures put in place include regular disinfection of common use areas at the airport, sanitization points for passengers and social distancing.
To eradicate risks of paper transmission of the disease, the CS said most of the activities will be paperless while a state of the art thermo scanners have been installed in key areas.
“As much as we have put all these measures in place and as much we would want to make sure passengers have the most stress-free travel, there might be instances when due to the prevailing circumstances, things might change leading to inconveniences,” he warned and urged airport officials to minimise inconveniences to passengers in protocols.
He spoke on a day Kenya recorded its highest single-day number of fatalities to COVID-19 at 23, with the youngest being a 16-year-old who had no underlying condition.
The country’s number of infections rose to 21, 363 after 727 new cases were recorded.
Source: capitalfm