NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 22 – Kenya has received an additional 504,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine directly procured by the government from the COVAX facility in continual efforts to boost the country’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
The vaccine doses were received by the Chairperson of the vaccine procurement and logistics committee at the Ministry of Health. They were handed over by the Johnson and Johnson manager for East Africa, Grace Humwa, on Thursday night.
Other vaccines being administered in Kenya include Moderna, Pfizer, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca.
Kenya is targeting to inoculate at least 10 million people by the end of the year, and has launched sustained campaigns including outreaches calling of its citizens to take the jab.
As of October 20, a total of 4,733,770 vaccines had been administered across the country, according the Ministry of Health.
Of these, 3,416,746 people were partially vaccinated, having received the first dose, while the number of those who were fully vaccinated stood at 1,317,024.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutai Kagwe said Thursday that the uptake of the second dose among those who had received their first dose was at 36.8 per cent.
Kagwe reported the proportion of adults fully vaccinated at 4.8 per cent.
The Health CS further said that the government is working towards vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033 in the country.
According to the Health Ministry, Nairobi County is leading with the highest proportion of the vaccinated population at 15.4 per cent, followed by Nyeri County (12.7 per cent), Kiambu (7.6 per cent), Uasin Gishu (7.2 per cent), Nyandarua (6.5 per cent), Kisumu (6.0 per cent) and Mombasa (5.6 per cent).
Kagwe said that pastoralist counties such as Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River and Marsabit were the lagging behind in the vaccination campaign with less than 1 per cent of the populations in the counties fully vaccinated.
He announced plans to step up COVID-19 vaccination in drought-hit counties by rolling out targeted initiatives through food distribution networks.
Acting Director-General for Health Dr Patrick Amoth said this has been made possible through partnerships with Non-Governmental Organizations.
“Even though we are facing drought, it’s a big opportunity because when the government is distributing food with World Food Programme, Red Cross and AMREF, it’s a latitude to offer vaccines in the same platform,” said Amoth.
The Health Ministry has faced numerous challenges in the vaccination exercise due to the nomadic nature of communities in the north and other areas hit by drought.
Amoth said the Health Ministry is working with the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs, and Special Programmes which handles Devolution to get as many people vaccinated.
To boost vaccination in ASALs CS Kagwe urged all devolved units including those affected by drought to put in place a framework of inoculating their residents with a keen consideration on the dynamics involved particularly in pastoral regions.
“Each county government must structure how they are going to vaccinate their people in accordance with the placing and population dynamics. Every county should be acting swiftly by using mobile facilities if necessary, adapting to the situation that citizens present to them,” Kagwe said.