The Government through the Ministry of Health has received an additional 407,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the UK Government under the COVAX facility.
This follows the recent receipt of slightly more doses which were distributed and administered countrywide.
In total, the UK government has now donated 817,000 doses to the Kenya.
In a speech read on his behalf by Health Director General Dr Patrick Amoth yesterday night at the Jomo Kenyatta airport when receiving the consignment, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the government is grateful as the gesture goes a long way in ensuring Kenyans are vaccinated and protected against Covid-19 disease.
The CS said the vaccines received would be distributed countrywide to enable people to be vaccinated.
“This consignment is particularly a major boost, coming at a time when the country is experiencing a high demand of the vaccine in all counties,” he said.
He confirmed that so far, 2.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines have been administered with at least 750,000 people fully vaccinated.
Kagwe said the government is targeting to vaccinate at least 10 million Kenyans by December 2021 and 26 million by June 2022.
He added that the additional doses received would bolster the country towards meeting this goal.
Kagwe urged all eligible persons to take the vaccine at the approved centres especially Health workers, teachers, security officers, frontline workers, those aged above 58 years of age and those aged above 18 years with co-morbidities.
The approved sites where the vaccines could be taken were on the Ministry of Health website.
To manage traffic, all persons intending to get vaccinated were also encouraged to first register on the online chanjo system on portal.health.go.ke.
The CS thanked the UK government represented by the Deputy High Commissioner Mr. Julius Court, UNICEF, WHO and other partners for all their efforts in ensuring that Kenya receives this ‘much needed shot in the arm.’
“These vaccines are a welcome gift to the people of Kenya as they line up to get their shots of life saving Covid-19 vaccines,” Kagwe said.
Kagwe thus asked Kenyans not to forget the containment measures that included hand washing with soap and water, wearing of face masks at all times when in public places, maintaining social and physical distance, and avoiding all forms of gatherings be they social or political as well as sanitizing.
