Kenya to vaccinate 1.25 million people by June

HEALTH & SCIENCEBy BETTY NJERU | 2 months ago

Kenya will receive 24 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX facility, and an additional 11 million doses from other sources.

The first batch is expected to arrive in the country in February.

On Friday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (pictured) announced that they expect to vaccinate at least 30 per cent of the population (16 million people) over a period of one and a half years.

According to the CS, the vaccination program will take place in three phases as per their urgency.

“1.25 million people will be vaccinated between February and June 2021 when it is expected that global vaccine stocks will be limited,” Kagwe said.

“The second phase will take place between July 2021 to June 2022 and as more vaccines become available the plan is to vaccinate 9.7 million more Kenyans, targeting persons above 50 years of age and those above 18 years of age with underlying health conditions,” he added.

The third phase could run concurrently with phase two depending on the availability of vaccines. The Ministry is targeting to vaccinate 4.9 million people during this period.

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The vaccines, he says, will be a mix of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, and any other included in the COVAX facility.

He assured those wary of the vaccines that they have been tested and approved by the Stringent Regulatory Authority (SRA) and are safe for use.

“There are many misconceptions about the Covid-19 vaccines that may lead to vaccination hesitancy. Any adverse effects reported will be investigated and corrective measures are taken up immediately,” he continued.

A member of a German Red Cross mobile vaccination team prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. [Reuters]

Covid-19 numbers

The CS said this while announcing the newest statistics in which 141 people have tested positive, out of a 5,644 sample size in the last 24 hours.

This now pushes the total confirmed cases in the country to 100,563.

Cumulatively, some 1,177,811 tests have been conducted so far.

Additionally, 64 patients have recovered from the disease. 44 whom were under the Home-Based Care programme and 20 are from various health facilities.

The total recoveries now stand at 83,821.

despite the low records in Covid cases and deaths, CS Kagwe has ruled out flattening the curve saying that he cannot ascertain that for now.

He also confirmed that Kenya’s positivity rate has been fluctuating between 3 and 10 per cent.

There were no deaths reported in Friday’s statistics. The coronavirus death toll remains 1,753.