Kenya's response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a balance between minimising morbidity and adverse economic impact

Edwin N Wangari; Peter Gichuki; Angelyne A Abuor; Jacqueline Wambui; Stephen O Okeyo; Henry T N Oyatsi; Shadrack Odikara; Benard W Kulohoma

doi:10.12688/aasopenres.13156.2

Kenya's response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a balance between minimising morbidity and adverse economic impact

AAS Open Res. 2021 Mar 29:4:3. doi: 10.12688/aasopenres.13156.2. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Edwin N Wangari¹, Peter Gichuki¹, Angelyne A Abuor¹, Jacqueline Wambui¹, Stephen O Okeyo¹, Henry T N Oyatsi¹, Shadrack Odikara¹, Benard W Kulohoma¹

Affiliation

¹ Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has ravaged the world's socioeconomic systems forcing many governments across the globe to implement unprecedented stringent mitigation measures to restrain its rapid spread and adverse effects. A disproportionate number of COVID-19 related morbidities and mortalities were predicted to occur in Africa. However, Africa still has a lower than predicted number of cases, 4% of the global pandemic burden. In this open letter, we highlight some of the early stringent countermeasures implemented in Kenya, a sub-Saharan African country, to avert the severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These mitigation measures strike a balance between minimising COVID-19 associated morbidity and fatalities and its adverse economic impact, and taken together have significantly dampened the pandemic's impact on Kenya's populace.

Keywords: COVID-19; Kenya; disease control measures; pandemic response; transmission.

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) through the AAS Affiliates Fellows programme. BWK is an AAS affiliate fellow.