Kenya has joined Singapore, Japan and South Korea in the list of countries drawing lessons from China’s principles of early detection, early quarantine and early treatment in order to halt the global spread of the coronavirus disease.
With the country keen to base its response on the experiences and lessons drawn from China’s successful battle with coronavirus, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe initiated the first conference call with Chinese counterparts on March 18.
“Today for the first time, via a video conferencing capacity which we have just installed today, our doctors were able to carry out a video conference with Chinese doctors, the ones who have been handling the disease in Wuhan, we were able today to talk on a one to one not only with the Kenya doctors, but also with about 20 countries. We were in a video conference all of us with 20 African countries,” said CS Kagwe.
With videoconference equipment supported by Huawei, the Kenyan delegation of over 10 officials and experts were able to share information on the fight against Covid-19 with their Chinese counterpart.
The delegates discussed the best approaches for prevention and control of the coronavirus at a time Kenya has confirmed 7 cases with several tests results not out yet.
“This is an extremely important step in terms of knowledge share and it gave us a tremendous amount of knowledge which we believe will also go a long way to assisting our people,” said Mr Kagwe after the meeting.
Huawei, the Chinese telecommunication firm, said it is fully committed to supporting Kenya’s response efforts.
“It is a good example of how technology can help with communications, collaboration and coordination which are a critical part of the response to the threat of COVD-19,” said Huawei Kenya Chief Executive Officer Stone He.
The video conference was held from the Ministry of Health headquarters at Afya House in Nairobi.
