As the number of covid-19 infections and deaths continue to rise especially in the last few weeks, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to institute additional stringent measures, to be implemented over the next two to three weeks.
The private sector umbrella body said that the positivity rate currently stands at a worrying 16.5% thereby prompting it to play its full role in ensuring that additional measures that government puts in place are implemented effectively.
“The private sector is not exempt from the negative effects of the pandemic, and has continued to work closely with government in managing the effects of the pandemic, most crucially by being involved in the development of protocols and economic incentives to see Kenya through this crisis,” Carole Kariuki Karuga, CEO of KEPSA, said in a statement.
KEPSA is also pushing for restriction of all inter county travel for the five most affected counties including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Nakuru and Kajiado for the next two weeks except for the essential services. They also called on government to increase curfew hour to 8:00pm to 4:00am from 10:00pm to 5:00am with the exemption of companies operating night shifts and those offering essential services.
Staying alive to the need to shield livelihoods and sustenance of the growth of the economy, the organisation has cited vaccination and testing, curfew or lockdown, compliance and enforcement of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) protocols, health facilities capacity and sensitization campaigns as some of the ways that would slow down the third Covid-19 wave.
“We must not only vaccinate our people; we must also intensify this campaign to ensure all Kenyans who want to be vaccinated are vaccinated by July 31 2021. The private sector is ready, willing and able to play its role in working with government to ensure we meet this target of 100% vaccination by July 31 2021,” said Ms Karuga.
