New Covid-19 app to reduce crowds at Airports ahead of International flights resumption launched.

As the country gears up to the resumption of International flights which will commence on August 1, 2020, the Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Kenya Airports Authority has on Friday July 31 announced the launch of a Mobile application that will be used to reduce crowding at the airports.

“International travel commences tomorrow; I apologize in advance for any inconveniences that will be experienced as we begin our new normal. To avoid crowding at airports we are introducing a mobile app to enable passengers fill in their details online”, CS Mutahi stated.

But how will the app work? Dr Koki Mutua who is the Director of Public Health at the Ministry of health took Kenyans through the workings of the app during the daily Covid-19 status briefing.

Dr. Mutua stated that once the international flights commence, travelers will be provided with a link by the various airlines and booking agents.

The link will direct the passengers to a surveillance form which they are required to fill in the required details at every step and upon a successful submission of the form a QR code will be generated for the passenger.

The QR code can then be saved on the phone in PDF format or as an image.

Once this is done, the passenger will then move on to the health desk stationed at the airport where a Ministry of Health worker will scan the code, effectively recording all the data filled in, on the surveillance form.

The passenger will then be released to proceed with the pre-flight boarding protocols.

Notably, passengers will then be reminded that they are mandated to log in daily temperature readings for a period of 14 days using the app.

Failure to log in the daily temperature readings will raise alarms and passengers will be tracked down by contact tracing teams using the app.

The forms will need to be filled before travelling to enable passengers to be cleared at their various destinations or ports of entry.