NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday he had extended a nationwide curfew for another 30 days and banned alcohol sales in restaurants to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The nightly curfew had been due to be lifted on Aug. 6 or 7.
Kenya has so far reported 17,603 cases of infection with the novel coronavirus and 280 deaths from the related disease COVID-19. The health ministry said on Sunday that 960 more cases had been confirmed, the biggest daily jump since the first case was confirmed in March.
“The harsh reality my friends is that we are at war. At war with an invisible enemy who is relentless,” Kenyatta said in a televised address.
When Kenyatta last made a televised address on July 6, the East African nation had nearly 7,900 cases of the novel coronavirus and 160 deaths.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa and Omar Mohammed; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
