Kenya to receive 1.7 million doses of vaccine donation from US

Kenya is set to receive 1.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the United States.

US Secretary of States Antony Blinken while meeting Foreign Affairs CS Raychelle Omamo said the vaccines will be a donation in line with strategic partnership with Nairobi.

“We have a very important strategic partnership with Kenya. We are working together across the continent and beyond. We are very pleased to have helped with the Covid-19 vaccines. There are 1.7 million vaccines that enroute soon to Kenya,” Blinken said.

Blinken said the US will be donating some 25 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines to 49 African countries through Covax amid efforts to save lives and build a safer and more secure world for all. 

The announcement comes barely a month after Blinken made a virtual trip to Kenya in line with celebrating a 57-year bilateral relationship.

In a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta and CS Omamo, Blinken reaffirmed the USA’s strategic partnership with Kenya, future cooperation to promote democracy and expand trade, explore avenues to address global challenges including climate change and covid-19.

He said the US had donated a Mobile Field Hospital to which it is providing essential covid-19 medical supplies through AFRICOM and the Massachusetts National Guards’ State Partnership Program.

CS Omamo in her sentiments said Kenya is grateful for the strategic partnership that it shares with Biden’s administration.

She said the vaccine donation is an opportunity to reaffirm the deep and longstanding friendship between the two countries.

“We work together on a variety of issues both nationally and regionally and globally. We both believe in the same principles, same values of democracy and the idea that there is hope in every person and that we can surmount our challenges through solidarity, working together and moving forward especially in the aftermath of Covid-19,” she said.

“We thank you for the vaccine donation. We thank you for standing with us throughout this difficult period and for emphasizing that there is still hope and that all countries can build back better. We can build back better on our continent and we can do so in partnership with friends,” she added.

Last week Kenya received 182,400 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of France to the COVAX facility and transported by UNICEF

In June another donation of 358,700 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Denmark was also received.

So far 1,607,982 persons have received their vaccination across the country.

Of the doses administered, the total first doses are 1,035,621 while second doses are 572,361.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the uptake of the second dose among those who received the first dose is at 55.3 per cent with a majority being males.

Kenya has so far reported 191,712 positive cases of Covid-19 since the first case was reported in March 2020.

Some 180,543 patients have recovered from the disease with 3,754 others having succumbed.

Currently, there are 1,108 patients admitted in various health facilities in the country whole 4,352 are under the Home-based Isolation and Care program.

Of the total admissions, 124 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit, 38 of whom are on ventilator support, 60 on supplemental oxygen and 26 under observation.

Another 291 patients are separately on supplemental oxygen with 201 being in general wards and 18 in the High Dependency Units.

pvidija@standardmedia.co.ke