NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 13 – Kenya recorded 179 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday raising the country’s caseload to 102, 792 cases even as the government works to acquire vaccines.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the new infections were identified from 4, 423 samples which were tested on Friday.
Kenya has so far conducted 1, 238, 343 tests.
Kagwe said 62 patients who were under the home-based care programme had been cleared of the virus while 17 were discharged from various hospitals countrywide raising the total number of recoveries in the country to 84, 952.
One patient succumbed to the virus raising fatalities in the country to 1,795.
The Ministry of Health on Saturday said it had recommended AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for clearance by World Health Organization (WHO) for importation by the end of this month.
Willis Akwale, Chairperson of the Taskforce on Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination, said the country will only bring in vaccines that have stringent authorization.
“A decision has been made that we would have to bring into this country vaccines that have stringent regulatory authorization like World Health Organization and until just the other day, it was only Pfizer and Moderna that had received emergency use authorization by WHO but this week a recommendation for the AstraZeneca vaccine to receive the same has been made,” Akwale said.
“So there is no way we could have imported without that under the Covax Facility.”
He further announced that any vaccine that will be used in the country must have registration by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB).
“I am happy to report that in the last two weeks the manufacturers of various vaccines have submitted their dossier to the pharmacy board and we expect that in the coming week we could see based on how the dossier will be evaluated the registration of the vaccine by the pharmacy board for use in Kenya,” Akwale said.
Akwale further revealed that the government has already allocated Sh930 million for the procurement of the vaccines.
The government is targeting to vaccinate 16 million people by end of the year to suppress the virus with vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson and Johnson.
Of the 16 million, more than 1 million health care workers and essential providers will be among the first people to be vaccinated against COVID- later this month when the vaccines arrive in the country.
In phase two of the vaccination, which is set to kick off in July and end in June 2022, 9.7 million Kenyans will be vaccinated.
The government said it will target mostly people aged above 50 years and those above 18 years but who have underlying conditions.
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