This article is taken directly from the source cited and does not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of AmCham Kenya
By Magdaline Saya,
Published July 12, 2021
Kenya is set to receive 1.7 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from the US government.
Though it is not clear when the doses will arrive in the country, the Health Ministry has disclosed that talks between the Kenya and the U.S government are at an advanced stage to ensure the doses are delivered in the country as soon as possible.
The two dose vaccine which is said to have an efficacy level of at least 91 per cent against Covid-19 is expected to be a major boost to the vaccination campaign in the country since the exercise began early March.
“This is important so that all the countries around the globe can be at the same level in term of vaccination coverage,” Head of Vaccines deployment taskforce Dr Willis Akhwale said.
This is after Kenya was listed among the countries to receive part of the 55 million Covid jabs from the US which will be shared globally.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced, the distribution list for 55 million of the 80 million doses of America’s own vaccine supply, that Biden pledged to allocate by the end of June in service of ending the pandemic globally.
About 14 million doses or 25 per cent of the 55 million vaccines are to be shared with regional priorities and other recipients including Kenya.
“We are moving from the period when we have been experiencing scarcity to when we should have adequate doses,” Akhwale said.
Data from the Health Ministry shows that as at Wednesday, the proportion of Kenyan adults fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with the AstraZeneca vaccine was just two per cent.
According to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, 534,491 had received their second dose since the exercise commenced.
A total of 1,030,853 have been administered with the first dose while the total number of vaccines administered across the country to date stands at 1,565,344.
“The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 51.8 per cent with the majority being male at 55 per cent while females are at 45 per cent,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
In terms of uptake per priority groups, 101,020 healthcare workers are now fully vaccinated with 74,206 being teachers, 42,350 security officers, 165,200 are people aged 58 years and above while the remaining 151,715 are members of the public.
The ministry has revealed that the country is set to receive an additional 271,000 doses of Pfizer through the Covax facility, a vaccines sharing platform as the country seeks to address the vaccine shortage.
Last week the government received 182,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the Government of France to the Covax facility and transported by UNICEF.
Source: The Star
