Kenya Airways the national carrier has finally bowed to pressure and in a statement suspended flights to Guangzhou in China due to the risk of the deadly coronavirus. The suspension comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency.
Earlier, KQ had indicated that they would not be suspending operations and had opted to monitor developments on the virus. In my opinion, this was putting the lives of Kenyans at risk as we do not have the necessary systems in place to handle such an outbreak. This was in the backdrop of over 15 international airlines like Lufthansa, British Airways, American Airlines among other suspending their flights to China.
So far, according to the BBC, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 170. Chinese authorities indicated that there were 7,711 confirmed cases in the country as of 29 January. Infections have also spread to at least 15 other countries.