|
Curbs on travel in the capital Nairobi and four surrounding
counties would be lifted, schools will be allowed to reopen
following an Education Ministry calendar. Religious services
will resume with some restrictions, while political gatherings
would still be banned, he said in a speech.
An evening curfew that currently starts at 8 p.m. will be
revised to 10 p.m.. The changes will be in effect from midnight
on Saturday, Kenyatta said.
Under the restrictions now being relaxed, Nairobi and
surrounding counties were treated as one zone, with residents
barred from traveling to other areas.
Cases in Kenya, the richest country in East Africa, have fallen
from last month's peak but it is still among the top five
nations in Africa reporting new infections and deaths, according
to a Reuters tracker.
Kenya reported 497 new infections and 17 deaths within the past
24 hours, according to the latest health ministry data released
on Friday. Overall, the country has recorded nearly 159,000
cases and around 2,700 deaths.
Broadly, Africa has not suffered as badly from the pandemic as
other parts of the world, but the African Union's disease
control agency warned the continent's governments and citizens
on Thursday not to let their guards down. It called the raging
state of the pandemic in India a wake-up call for Africa.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Maggie Fick)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
