The Kenyan government announced on Sunday (April 5) that it would extend the ban on all international flights by 30 days as the country intensified the fight against spread the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous two-week ban, implemented on March 25, expired at midnight on April 5.

Cabinet Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, James Macharia, said the ban would not apply to cargo flights or repatriation flights of foreign nationals in Kenya.

“For the evacuation of foreign nationals in Kenya, we require 72 hours’ notice from any country wanting to evacuate its citizens.”

Macharia said Kenya Airways would fly to China on Wednesday, April 8, to collect key medical equipment to help the country mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

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