This archive report was first published on 14 May 2020.
Published on May 14, 2020, the government has confirmed that 193 Kenyans living abroad have tested positive to Covid-19, with 30 fatalities reported so far.
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo made the revelation during a virtual meeting with the ad hoc committee on Covid-19 pandemic, chaired by Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja.
Omamo stated that 88 Kenyans abroad are presently admitted in hospitals in different countries, with four in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 78 having recovered so far.
The government has also established an emergency committee chaired by CAS Ababu Namwamba to monitor the situation surrounding Kenyans in the diaspora.
Omamo noted that the ministry has negotiated with ministries in different countries to help cater for Kenyans who were forced to extend their stay based on the information they are being given.
However, the government has urged families whose kin die abroad to bury or cremate them there, but those insisting on bringing their bodies back to Kenya must do so at their own cost.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Ambassador Macharia Kamau stated, "Families willing to bring home the bodies of their relatives will have to bear the costs or allow them to be cremated in a foreign land."
As of May 13, 2020, the number of Covid-19 infections in Kenya rose to 737, after 22 new cases were confirmed.
According to data collated by Johns Hopkins University, more than four million confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported around the world, with a global death toll of above 293,783 and 1.6 million people having recovered.
