NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 10- The Ministry of Health now says Kenya will receive up to 25 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine free of charge as part of a grant by the COVAX facility.
According to Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi who was appearing before National Assembly Health Committee, this is due to an advance purchase agreement between COVAX and Gavi.
She said the vaccines will be delivered in Kenya as grants and aims to provide equitable access to vaccines for all countries around the world.
“Kenya will not spend a single coin. It is a grant from GAVI through the COVAX facility. Gavi took the lead in negotiating directly with the manufacturers and logistics sort of distributors and so the price you saw being shared it is not just a price for Kenya but for any country that has signed up with COVAX,” Mwangangi said on the day the country reported 12 deaths and 713 new infections, the highest since November last year.
Kenyans, particularly on social media had raised questions seeking to know how much the government was spending in purchasing the vaccines.
Mwangangi further pointed out that for now Kenya will only receive Astrazeneca vaccine with a possibility of getting the Moderna vaccine later.
“There is no other vaccine that is coming in even though the COVAX. We will be bringing in Astrazeneca and possibly Moderna in terms of the infrastructure that we have. We do not have the ultracold chain storage that is required for Pfizer,” she said.
Kenya received 1.02 million vaccines Tuesday, shipped in by UNICEF as part of the global COVAX alliance, which aims to provide equitable access to vaccines for all countries around the world.
In phase two of the vaccination, which is set to kick off in July, 9.7 million Kenyans will be vaccinated.
The vaccines were transported by UNICEF as part of the COVAX facility, which aims to provide equitable access to vaccines for all countries around the world.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and made available to the COVAX facility thanks to an advance purchase agreement between Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and SII, were procured and transported by UNICEF’s Supply Division in Copenhagen.
The first consignment of 1.02 million doses is part of an initial allocation to Kenya of 3.56 million doses.
County Governments have already kicked of vaccination exercise with priority being given to healthcare workers.
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