NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 18 – Kenya will now be deploying five different types of vaccines after the fifth vaccine, Sinopharm, arrived from China on Saturday morning.
The China-made vaccine arrived in a batch comprising 200,000 vaccine doses with more expected to be acquired through the COVAX facility.
The arrival of the Sinopharm vaccines came just a day after the Pfizer vaccine from the United States arrived in the country, even as the government continued to ramp up efforts to attain its target to have at least 10 million adults vaccinated by December 2021.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said health workers had already been trained on how to administer the vaccine, as it has been the case with other vaccines.
“This is the fifth type of vaccine that will be deployed in the country alongside AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer. We are appealing to our people who have not been vaccinated to use this chance to do so in order to protect yourself and your loved ones,” said Kagwe.
Sinopharm is a two-dose vaccine with a 28-day gap between the first and second dose.
Kagwe also emphasized that all the vaccines are equal when it comes in efficacy of preventing severe illness and death as a result of the COVID-19 disease.
As at September 16, the Ministry of Health reported that a total of 3,290,450 vaccines had been administered across the country.
First doses totaled 2,439,528 while second doses were reported at 850,922.
The proportion of fully vaccinated adults stood at 3.1 per cent.
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