Kenya to roll out vaccine in three phases

The Ministry of Health has announced that Covid-19 vaccinations will be rolled out in three phases.

The first phase will be rolled out from mid-February to June and will target 1.25 million Kenyans.

It will cover frontline healthcare workers, non-medical staff in health facilities, and other essential service providers such as security personnel and immigration officers.

The second phase is intended to begin in July this year and run to June next year. It is expected to cover 9.7 million people by targeting citizens aged over 50 years and anyone above 18 years with underlying health conditions.

Health Cabinet Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi said the third phase will target 4.9 million people.

"Phase three could run concurrently with phase two depending on availability of adequate vaccines... Our target will include vulnerable populations like those in congested settings.”

To ensure the whole process runs smoothly, the Health Ministry has established a task force, chaired by Dr Willis Akhalwe, to ensure the expedited introduction and deployment of the vaccines.

Mwangangi said Kenya is a member of the Covax facility through which procurement of the vaccines will be done.

Sixty-nine countries are included in the Covax arrangement and are guaranteed to get two billion doses.

"Kenya will receive 24 million doses from Covax and procure other 11 million doses through other mechanisms to vaccinate nearly 16 million people, which is 30 per cent of the population, over a period of 18 months.

"The vaccines are expected to be AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and any other that will be included in the Covax facility," she said.

The CAS said that efforts are being made to procure vaccines through other mechanisms like the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to cover an additional five million people in the same period and achieve a vaccination coverage of 40 per cent.

The ministry also intends to build the capacity of more than 23,000 healthcare workers, including health volunteers.

Mwangangi dismissed concerns that Kenya lacks the necessary infrastructure to store the vaccines.

"Kenya has established vaccination infrastructure with central storage in Nairobi requiring cold chain of up to minus 20 degrees and some limited capacity for minus 70 degrees in major urban areas. This infrastructure has been developed primarily for the immunisation of children aged below five years.”

She said the government also plans to ensure that life-saving childhood vaccinations are not interrupted.

Patrick Amoth, the Director-General of Health, said Kenyans should not be worried about the South African Covid-19 variant that was recently identified in the country. He said tourists from South Africa had been isolated and contact tracing done. The contacts had tested negative and there was no risk of transmission.

Responding to a question whether Kenya should be worried about claims that the AstraZeneca vaccine might not be efficacious, Mwangangi said Kenya had access to vaccines from other manufacturers.

The concerns arose after the UK government and the manufacturers of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine defended its efficacy when Germany said the vaccine should not be used on people aged 65 and above.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended the vaccine saying that it was 'highly approved' by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Mwangangi also said it was hard to tell whether the Covid-19 curve had flattened because schools had just re-opened.