Passengers boarding a Kenya Airways plane at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. All passengers travelling on Kenya Airways or through JKIA from Ebola-hit West African destinations will undergo temperature checks and other screening for signs of illness. FILE PHOTO | NATION
What you need to know:
The epidemic has claimed 932 lives and infected more than 1,700 people across west Africa.
Handgun thermometers, gloves and hand sanitizers have been provided to staff at Free Town, Monrovia, Accra, Lagos and Abuja.
Liberia and Sierra Leone have already declared states of emergency.
All passengers travelling on Kenya Airways from Ebola-hit West African destinations will undergo temperature checks at the points of departure.
Handgun thermometers, gloves and hand sanitizers have been provided to staff at Free Town, Monrovia, Accra, Lagos and Abuja, the airline said.
Travellers will also be screened by doctors in Nairobi before boarding aircraft for other destinations or being allowed out of the airport.
The airline announced the measures shortly after declaring that it would continue flying to these destinations since the best advice from global health authorities shows that the risk to most travellers remains low.
Additional measures on arrival were spelled out by the airline which will also require passengers to complete surveillance forms while on board the aircraft.
“All passengers arriving at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) from West Africa and Entebbe, and whose final destination is Nairobi, are now using a separate gate on arrival where screening will be done before release to Immigration officials, and into the country,” the statement signed by outgoing chief executive Titus Naikuni reads. “Port Health, a division of the Ministry of Health responsible for disease surveillance and public health control at all points of entry, will regularly inform the various County Health teams of persons who have travelled to their counties as per surveillance forms.”
Transit passengers will also be screened before proceeding to their connecting flight.
“Adequate arrangements have been put in place to avoid delays and misconnection,” Kenya Airways says. “Kenya Airways provide Port Health details on the flights expected and numbers of transit and terminating passengers beforehand to facilitate planning for the screening.”
“We continuously monitor updates from World Health Organisation, Centres for Disease Control and the International Air Transport Association on the disease, its spread and for guidelines on recommended actions,” they said.
