All the 239 passengers and crew aboard the China Southern Airline were told to self-quarantine by the Kenyan Ministry of Health after a secretly filmed video showed China Southern Airline that had reported to have suspended its flights to Kenya landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
“China Southern Airlines resumed its flights to Nairobi today. All 239 passengers were screened onboard and cleared and the aircraft decontaminated”, said a statement from the ministry of health.
On February 10th, 2020, China Southern Airlines decided to suspend its flights to Kenya. The suspension of the airline’s flights (Nairobi-Changsha, and Nairobi-Guangzou), which initially operated four weekly direct flights since June last year, was to take effect from 10th February 2020.
However, flight data from flightstats have shown that the airline contnued to operate normally without any suspension in Kenya. (see attachement below)
There was public uproar as Kenyans took to social media asking questions why this was happening. The Ministry of Health social media admin had a hard time answering question prompting quick repsonses that necessitated deleatin of some statements.
The Chinese Embassy In Kenya responded by stating that China Southern Airlines will continue its fights in Kenya despite the fear of coronavirus in Kenya.
Some of the opinion we sampled:
Coronavirus
The death toll from coronavirus is over 2,700 worldwide, with the vast majority in mainland China. Thousands more are infected, a few have been healed. Countries that have reported the first cases of the virus are Brazil, Pakistan, North Macedonia, Greece, Georgia and Algeria.
WHO has already declared a global emergency over the virus.
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