Nairobi County Health CEC Hitan Majevdia on Thursday, March 18 announced travel restrictions for county health workers over the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Majevdia announced that all non-essential travel of any health staff would be suspended in light of the situation, with seven cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Kenya so far.
He further recalled all medical workers on leave, directing them to report back to their stations within 24 hours.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Majevdia asserted that the directives were to take effect immediately, as he explained that the county needed all hands on deck.
"They take effect immediately. Nobody is going to receive any clearance to travel from tomorrow. The directive affects all cadres of health workers," he stated.
Majevdia further praised the commitment of health workers stationed in various public hospitals who are on the front-line in the fight against the pandemic.
He maintained that the response to the outbreak had so far been impressive, noting that the training of health workers on how to deal with suspected cases of the virus was successful.
"Training is successful, we have trained more than 3,500 workers over the past few days on everything they need to know about this situation," he stated.
The news came as the county deployed a team to sanitize parts of the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD).
The sanitization is in addition to other measures being taken, including sensitization programs and live hand-washing demonstrations in various crowded hotspots.
Teams were deployed by the county to places including the bus station at Kenya Railways, Machakos Country Bus and Tea Room matatu terminus.
The county officials had also raised an alarm after bottles of hand sanitizers went missing in various hospitals.
"You know we have had cases of people stealing sanitisers. Yesterday we had two private hospitals complaining that the public is stealing sanitisers because they are not available or they are too expensive.
"When you are stealing a bottle of sanitiser, you know you could be sanitising over 100 hands, but one person picks up that bottle. Please avoid those things," Majevdia told the press on Tuesday, March 17.
