810,000 Kenyans fully vaccinated as 2.8 million vaccines administered – Kagwe

NAIROBI,Kenya, Sep 4 – Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe says Kenya is on course to fully vaccinate the entire adult population before the end of 2022.

The move is in line with the African Union objective of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the people In Africa against the deadly COVID-19 which continues to ravage the world. Kenya had last year endorsed the move by the AU Bureau Heads of States and government chaired by South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

Last evening Kenya received a consignment of 141,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine, the third to be deployed in the country after Astrazeneca and Moderna Vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single shot vaccine that is easily stored at 2 to 8 degrees centigrade during administration, and can also be frozen at minus 20 degrees to ensure months of shelf life. 

This vaccine will therefore require less logistics and operational costs. It is expected to be of great utility in reaching mobile populations and primary healthcare facilities, where uptake of vaccines continues to be low.

“The single dose administration will ensure that these populations will be fully vaccinated quickly, since with their mobile nature, it is difficult to get them return for the second dose. The Ministry of Health is therefore going to prioritize the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to counties in these regions,” said Kagwe.

The recent consignment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is first of the 13.3 million doses directly procured by Kenya through the Africa Vaccines Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

AVAT was set up in November, 2020 as part of the African Union’s Covid-19 vaccine development and Access strategy.

“We look forward to the second delivery of 252,000 more doses next week and more doses in the coming weeks hopefully amounting to more than ONE million doses monthly, so that we attain Kenya’s goal of vaccinating the entire adult population before the end of next year,” he said.

“We are delighted that part of the production of these vaccines that we have received today, took place on the African continent at the ASPEN factory in South Africa. Kenya through the multi-agency on Human Vaccines manufacturing committee, is in discussion with ASPEN for technical collaboration. This is with a view to setting up the roadmap towards local manufacture of vaccines in Kenya,”

Kenya received a further 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday from Latvia bringing the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses received in the country to 4,266,500.

Over 2.8 million doses have so far been administered with 810,000 Kenyans being fully vaccinated.

The government has meanwhile also announced that the number of vaccinations posts will be increased to 3,000 by the end of December with targeted campaigns set to commence for priority groups.

So far, out of the 427,000 people above 58 years of age who have received the first dose only 240, 649 (57%) have taken their second dose. 

Overall, only 9.3% of the estimated 2.6 million persons above 58 years of age are fully vaccinated. 

“I want to appeal to these people who are most at risk of severe diseases and death, to take advantage of the improved availability of vaccines and get vaccinated soonest. I also urge all people who have had their 1st dose of AstraZeneca to ensure that they get their 2nd dose when due especially now that the vaccines are available.” said Kagwe.