More than a third of Kenyans still not practising social distancing - report

Over a third of Kenyans are still not adhering to the government's directives on practising social distancing.

A report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics indicates that 63.6 per cent of Kenyans said they were practising social distancing. 

The survey on Socio Economic Impact of Covid-19 on Households Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics was conducted between May 30 and June 6.

Respondents were asked on the various measures they have put in place to avoid contracting the c0ronavirus.

Majority of the respondents (95.7%) reported practising washing hands with soap and water as a way of protecting themselves.

About 84 per cent of the respondents were using masks.

Almost all of Kenyans are now fully aware of the current coronavirus pandemic.

The report indicated that 99.0 per cent of Kenyans aged above 18 years are fully aware of the pandemic.

According to the report, out of the respondents who worked for at least one hour during the seven days preceding the survey period, 55.9 per cent were aged 35-64 years while those aged 25-34 constituted 33.8 per cent and those aged 18-24 constituted 10.2 per cent.

Nationally, the report indicates that radio and television are the main sources of information on Covid-19 at 82.8 per cent and 58.6 per cent, respectively.

Some 42.1 per cent had heard about the virus from friends and family compared to 39.9 per cent who heard from mobile messages.

While 26.1 per cent pf the respondents heard of the disease from social media, 22.0 per cent heard from government sources, 11.3 per cent from newspapers and 11.2 per cent from health care workers.

The respondents were asked questions on knowledge of the coronavirus, symptoms and measures they were taking to protect themselves from the disease.

"There were no much differentials on knowledge of symptoms of the coronavirus by sex of the respondent.However, slightly more women (70.5%) knew of difficulty in breathing as a symptom compared to men (69.0%) while more men (90.6%) were aware of fever as a symptom compared to women (89.5%)," the report indicated.

There were no major differentials on knowledge on methods of protection from the virus by the different sex.

"However, notable difference was observed on the use of hand sanitisers which was cited by 61.6 percent of females compared to 54.9 per cent of males," the report said.

The differences in use of various protective methods by female respondents relative to male respondents were marginal, however, a notably higher proportion of females (44.1%) reported that they worked from home to avoid the virus infection compared to males (37.6%).