Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho has warned his fellow citizens: if they continue to fail to comply with the restrictions and rules of the pandemic emergency, he will be forced to lock down the entire county.
The threat of lockdown came just as in Nairobi the percentage of covid-19 cases per swab carried out is falling and the situation is improving thanks to the restraint measures, when the island city of Mombasa and its surroundings has seen contagions soar and the official figures seem much lower than the unrecorded ones. There have been 67 symptomatic cases in the last 24 hours and the health organisation is certainly not that of the capital.
"This is a battle of everyone at Covid-19," said Joho, "not of the government against the people. So far we have done well, but we are at a point where if we don't take precautions, we will gamble away all the progress we have made in the last few months. To be able to defeat the virus, there are things the government can do and things the public must do. Don't think that by circumventing regulations, you are smarter...it is not that going unpunished equals being a hero."
The Governor, nicknamed "The Sultan", noted a definite "relaxation" and asked even those who have always observed the guidelines not to let their guard down.
"We were able to stay open because many of us were acting according to our conscience," he reiterated, "We don't want to get to a point where we are forced to make those extremely difficult decisions of closing posts or watching the cessation of movement being implemented.
The governor also recalled that the county had to install a new oxygen system at the Coastal Teaching and Referral General Hospital to support the increased demand, as well as refitting another small hospital, Tudor, as an isolation unit to better deal with the new increase in cases.
"We had to implement our own oxygen plant, but right now we are dependent on external supplies from all sources," Sultan explained, "Even with these numbers, I can tell you it is a struggle. What will happen if we have a spike in Covid-19 cases?"