Kenya bans in-person meetings, public gatherings as COVID surges

Hospitals becoming overwhelmed as East African country witnesses a jump in cases from the Delta variant.

Kenya said it is extending a nighttime curfew and banning public gatherings and in-person meetings to slow the spread of the coronavirus, warning that hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. The East African country has in recent days witnessed a jump in cases from the Delta variant, with a positivity rate of 14 percent as of Friday compared with about seven percent last month. “All public gatherings and in-person meetings of whatever nature are suspended countrywide. In this regard, all government, including intergovernmental meetings and conferences, should henceforth be converted to either virtual or postponed in the coming 30 days,” Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe said in a televised address on Friday.