UoN expert: There is a ray of hope for Kenya in COVID-19 fight

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Professor Omu Anzala, a virologist and immunologist at KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR) at the University of Nairobi .

The Ministry of Health (MoH) announced the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kenya on 13^th March, 2020.

MoH went ahead and came up with projections of the COVID-19 cases in the country and announced precautionary measures to curb the spread of the disease.

So far, current numbers fall short of the ministry’s earlier predictions, giving a ray of hope to the country in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Omu Anzala, a virologist and immunologist at KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR) at the University of Nairobi is confident that Kenya is going to win the war against COVID-19.

According to him, projections by MoH were arrived at based on worst case scenario and what had transpired in other countries where cases of COVID-19 had been reported earlier.

Also see: VIDEO: Corona virus demystified by UoN experts

“The data was arrived at based on worst case scenario but now if you look at the way our epidemic is evolving you can see that the curve is not following that, so to some extend something is happening,” he said.

However, Prof. Anzala was quick to point out that it is too early for Kenya to start celebrating saying that they want to critically look at what is going to happen this month and next month before coming up with a conclusion.

“I urge all Kenyans to adhere to the laid down precautionary measures then end of May we can begin to look at what is going on and the story might be different, it is too early to make any conclusion right now,” Prof. Anzala says.

As of Wednesday 15^th April, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in Kenya stood at 225.