Dar es Salaam — Efforts by individual countries in the East Africa region to tackle the spread of the novel coronavirus across borders yesterday saw Kenya ban the movement of pedestrians and passenger s in and out of the country.

It has also emerged that when the Heads of State of the East African Community held a virtual consultative meeting on the pandemic on May 12, Tanzania reportedly requested for a bilateral meeting with Rwanda to iron out outstanding issues on the movement of cargo trucks between the two countries, according to Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vincent Biruta who was quoted by New Times newspaper of Rwanda.

Countries such as Rwanda have imposed requirememnts of a relay system that would allow handing over of cargo trucks to Rwandan drivers at border points, offloading cargo at border points as well as Covid-19 clearance certificates for truck drivers.

When addressing Kenyans from State House in Nairobi yesterday, President Kenyatta said over the last one week a total of 43 positive cases recorded in the country had been imported from the neighbouring Somalia and Tanzania.

The President further noted that 78 truck drivers who were foreign nationals tested positive for Covid-19 and were denied entry into Kenya at different border crossings.