NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 21 – The Ministry of Health is set to acquire two million Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines to compliment AstraZeneca amid supply challenges triggered by a COVID-19 crisis in India.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said this is aimed at ensuring that the county’s vaccination program continues uninterrupted.
“India the manufacturer of the AstraZeneca vaccines is going through a challenging time with over 200,000 cases on COVID-19 being recorded daily and it is for this reason India has slowed down the supply of Astrazeneca to address the problem in their country,” said Kagwe.
CS Kagwe noted that the vaccines will have to pass approvals from the World Health Organization as well as stringent rules set out by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
For Pfizer which requires minus 70 degrees for storage, the CS said the ministry will acquire the vaccine concurrently with the special storage facilities.
The government banned the private sector role in vaccines citing the confusion it was going to create, as well as the risk of some people taking advantage to sell the doses to Kenyans despite them being offered by government free of charge.
The CS said there has been a drop in the positivity rate being witnessed in the country in the last two weeks and that he hopes Kenyans will maintain it that way to further curtail the spread of the virus.
He however noted that the hospitalization rate and those being admitted into the Intensive Care Unit continues to rise.
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