The plane carrying Kenya’s first batch of Covid-19 vaccines has left Doha, Qatar and will arrive in Kenya on Tuesday night.

The vaccines are on a Boeing Dreamliner, B78-8. It will take five hours 30 minutes to cover the 3,355 kilometres between Doha and Nairobi.

The plane left Hamad International airport at 6:35 pm and will land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 11:55 pm.

One million doses

Kenya is expected to receive 1.02 million doses of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, part of the 24 million doses the country is expected to import in the next couple of months.

The Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Kenya through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility.

Kenya’s shipment left Pune in Eastern India on Monday and had a stopover Doha before today’s final destination to Nairobi.

Healthcare workers in 47 counties are among those who will get the jab first. Frontline workers like security personnel and teachers are also on the priority list.

“Healthcare workers and other frontline workers in 47 counties will receive the vaccine in the county referral hospitals,” said Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Sunday.

The vaccines are to be procured through Unicef, who are expected to manage shipment up to delivery.

Once cleared at the port, the vaccines will be transferred to Central Vaccines stores in Kitengela, and subsequently to the nine regional depots across the country.

Other depots are in Nyeri, Meru, Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kakamega, Kisumu and Garissa

At least 479 Level IV, V and VI hospitals have been selected to be used for dispensation of the vaccine. Among them, 195 are private.

Kenya has so far recorded 106,125 since March 12, 2020, with cumulative tests standing at 1,301,051.

The country has also lost 1859 people to the virus with 86,717 people having recovered from the virus.