NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 23 – Kenya received the first batch of 880,460 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the United States government, the first time the vaccine was received in the country.
The Health Ministry said this is part of the 1.76 million doses donated by the US government through the COVAX facility.
The Moderna doses are set to boost the ongoing nationwide vaccination exercise, supporting the government’s quest to get at least 10 million adult population vaccinated by December 25.
The vaccines were received by Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache who announced the increase of vaccination centres from the current 800 to 3,000 to offer one specific type of vaccine.
“We plan to allocate one vaccine type to each vaccination post. We do not want to have a cross mix of vaccines within facilities so that those designated to offer Pfizer will offer Pfizer, those designated to offer Moderna or AstraZeneca will do so. This will enable people to choose which post to be vaccinated at,” Mochache said.
She said the ministry targets to vaccinate at least 150,000 people a day after receiving freezers with a 3 million dose capacity.
“Last week alone, we attained a daily vaccination rate of 40,000 people per day and on Friday we hit a record of 70 thousand vaccinations in a single day placing us on focus on course to achieving our target of administering 150,000 doses daily before the end of September,” she said.
The first batch of 800,460 doses of Moderna vaccines arrived in Kenya on August 23,2021.
The British government has also donated 817,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to support the ongoing exercise, a donation which came after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit visit to the United Kingdom in July.
The government is availing the vaccines for free in various health facilities countrywide in the national vaccination campaign is being led by the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, UNICEF, Gavi and other partners.
To date a total of 2,374,197 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered across the country, including 1,595,335 first doses and 778,862 second doses.
The second dose vaccination began on May 28. Approximately 2.9 per cent of the adult population has since been fully vaccinated.
According to the Ministry of Health, another consignment of 393,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine is expected to arrive in the next few weeks and 1.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in September.
