Common Mistakes Kenyans made during Covid-19 pandemic

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, 1.2 million people have lost their lives around the world. Kenyans had to change their ways of life to avoid being infected by the deadly virus when it broke out in the country.

However, there are those die-hard habits that were really difficult to leave behind and many Kenyans kept doing them despite being told not to.

They include;

Not sanitizing after handling money

Money changes hands all day every day as we make transactions and could have easily passed through hands of people infected with Covid-19. Despite this knowledge, it was really difficult to sanitize after handling money every time and it looked cumbersome.

Lowering mask to talk to someone

We’re all guilty of doing this at some point since the outbreak of Coronavirus. This could be due to wearing some thick masks and feeling like the person will not hear if we speak with masks on.

This was also done if someone keeps telling you to repeat words or speak louder. The whole point of wearing masks is to protect yourself while speaking to someone.

Giving public transport conductor your phone

Kenyans in a public transport vehicle

Mobile transactions are safer compared to using cash during the pandemic. However, one major mistake some Kenyans made was giving conductors their phones to input their phone numbers to send fare through M-pesa.

This was mostly done if the vehicle had really loud music, if the conductor did not want to publicly say his/her number or was seated far away.

Conductors handle cash and are in direct contact with hundreds of people on a daily basis. The solution is to sanitize hands and phone after paying or ask them to recite their numbers out loud.

Disregarding Covid-19 guidelines around friends and workmates

Some Kenyans immediately forgot Covid-19 existed when they were with close friends and workmates. We lowered our masks, failed to maintain social distance with workmates and forgot to constantly sanitize hands and phones.

The familiarity made it more difficult to maintain the restrictions and break habits we had in regards to interacting with workmates and close friends.

Buying the wrong mask

When the government introduced fines as a way of ensuring all Kenyans wore masks, people rushed to buy the nearest mask. In the process, some got over-sized, under-sized or thicker masks than the recommended 2-layered ones.

This was also partly because business-people were rushing to make masks to meet the high demand and mint cash.

In the process, some untrained people made thicker masks with more than 2 layers from clothes, which made breathing more difficult. This made people touch their masks a few times a day to adjust them which increases risk of getting Covid-19.

Touching your face

This was difficult not to do considering it was something we did since we were babies. Regardless, some remembered to wash hands and sanitize before touching their faces.