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CORONAVIRUS: Kenyans sign petition to stop flights from China

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CORONAVIRUS: Kenyans sign petition to stop flights from China

Scores of Kenyan citizens have reportedly signed two online petitions asking its government to suspend direct flights from China over fears of the outbreak of coronavirus also called COVID-19.

According to reports, thousands of Kenyan citizens signed the petitions within hours as criticism grew after the government allowed a China Southern Airlines flight into the country on Wednesday and asked passengers to self-isolate.

Capital FM news quoted the government as saying on Thursday that it would be discriminatory to ban flights from China as many other countries had been hit by coronavirus.

Ahmed Papa, one of the people who started the petition which was addressed to the ministries of health and security, and the Kenya Airports Authority, says Kenya is not prepared to handle a coronavirus outbreak and so it should prevent all cases.

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“We’re simply not ready to fight the scourge. Not economically and certainly not technologically,” he wrote.

The development comes after the first case of Coronavirus disease was confirmed in Lagos, Nigeria, by the Minister of Health, Osagie Enahire, early on Friday morning.

The case was an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy, on Tuesday, February 25, 2020.

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