This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
China Denies Reports of Citizens Fleeing Kenya Amid COVID-19 Fears ¶
Published on June 17, 2020
China has denied reports that its citizens are fleeing Kenya due to COVID-19 fears, with the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi dismissing the claims as false and based on imagination.
The denial comes after reports emerged that a group of 200 Chinese nationals had booked their flights out of Kenya on June 14 and left the country on June 16, citing concerns over the upsurge of coronavirus infections in Nairobi.
However, the Chinese Embassy has stated that the reports are false and that there is no passenger flight to China this week.
According to the reports, the Chinese nationals had raised concerns over the capacity of Kenya's health system to handle the pandemic and had gone to court to acquire orders directing the government to allow flights from China to come and airlift them.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the highly contagious disease has spread to over 210 countries, infecting over 8.2 million people and killing over 446,000 others.
In Kenya, 3,860 infections had been recorded as of June 17, with 1,328 recoveries and 105 deaths.
