{"id":82376,"date":"2020-07-07T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T05:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82376"},"modified":"2020-07-07T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T06:00:00","slug":"kenya-to-reopen-to-international-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82376","title":{"rendered":"Kenya to reopen to international flights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.thecitizen.co.tz\/image\/view\/-\/5588738\/highRes\/2635285\/-\/maxw\/600\/-\/lxk2qmz\/-\/kenya+piccc.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NAIROBI, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a &#8220;phased reopening&#8221; of the country, with the resumption of international flights from Aug&nbsp;1 as well as the lifting of internal travel restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The move comes as pressure mounts to kickstart the country&#8217;s ailing economy after nearly four months of coronavirus restrictions that have devastated key industries such as tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenyatta said in a televised address that &#8220;international air travel into and out of the territory of Kenya shall resume effective 1 August 2020.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also announced the lifting of a ban on movement in and out of the capital Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa and northeastern Mandera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, a curfew from 9pm to 4am will remain in place for another 30 days, effective immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenya has recorded 7,886 cases of the virus and 160 deaths &#8211; the highest official figures in East Africa &#8211;&nbsp;and has seen a steep increase in numbers in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fewer than 200,000 people have been tested in the population of 51 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In June, Kenyatta had said that before lifting restrictions, the country would need to have contained infections with numbers headed downwards; the health care system must be prepared to deal with a surge in infections; and the capacity for surveillance and contact tracing must be in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said Monday that experts looking at those conditions determined &#8220;we have not met the irreducible minimum 100%&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, they agreed &#8220;we have reached a reasonable level of preparedness across the country to allow us to reopen,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenyatta also warned the reopening was &#8220;conditional&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Any trends that signal a worsening of the pandemic, we will have no choice but to return to the lockdown,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kenyatta also announced that places of worship will be allowed to reopen, but with a maximum of 100 people attending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He urged citizens to continue to implement social distancing, and to avoid travel as much as possible, asking them to, &#8220;exercise cautious optimism and avoid reckless abandon.&#8221; &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, July 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a &#8220;phased reopening&#8221; of the country, with the resumption of international flights from Aug&nbsp;1 as well as the lifting of internal travel restrictions. The move comes as pressure mounts to kickstart the country&#8217;s ailing economy after nearly four months of coronavirus restrictions that have devastated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":82379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82376"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}