After an entire summer spent on the UK’s list of the country’s most stringent restrictions, Kenya is back on the list of countries with low risk of covid-19 on October 4; with that, they won’t have to do a quarantine upon entering the country.
During the summer, the UK had divided countries into 3 lists, green, amber and red; each reflecting the risk of covid-19 infection of the countries on it. In mid-August, many in Kenya had turned their noses up at the decision to renew the country’s presence on the list. This required a double swab quarantine on arrival in the UK in order to enter the country. In fact, this decision had severely inhibited travel between the two countries, but not only. Trade was also damaged, which is why in April the Kenyan Ministry of Economy issued a statement expressing its concern about the consequences of this choice.
What marked the change of pace was the gradual improvement in the epidemiological situation in the African country, achieved with the start of consistent vaccination and the promise to reinforce it in the near future and, above all, comforting data published by the Kenyan Ministry of Health. The UK’s High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott, said that this period on the red list has made relations between the two countries particularly difficult but that both are now focused on returning to normal.
Kenya, along with Egypt, represents a rarity on the African continent, they are the only two countries to have come off the UK’s red list. After October 4, the way in which the lists of at-risk countries are managed will also change, with a single red list of at-risk countries that will have to continue quarantining upon arrival in the country.
