NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 30 – 7. 1 million people had been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Kenya by the end of November 2021.
Speaking during his State of the Nation address in Parliament on Tuesday, President Uhuru Kenyatta urged more people to turn up and take the jab for their own safety.
“I did pledge to the Nation in June this year that by Christmas we would have over 10 million people vaccinated. As of today, we have achieved a target of 7.1 million Kenyans up from 5 million as announced on Mashujaa day,” Kenyatta said on Tuesday.
With new COVID-19 variants emerging from time to time, President Kenyatta called on the public to make sure they are vaccinated against the disease.
“To fortify our national resolve against COVID-19 and in honor of all those Kenyans that we have lost to the disease, I do urge all Kenyan adults to visit their nearest medical facility to receive their COVID-19 vaccination,” Kenyatta urged.
Of the 7.1 million people who had received the jab by the end of November, 4,354,454 were partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated were 2,709,473.
The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first jab was at 57 percent while the proportion of adults fully vaccinated was 9.9 percent.
The Government is working towards vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033.
By the end of November, 255,088 had tested positive for the virus while a total of 248,318 recoveries had been recorded.
The positivity rate stood at 2.2 percent.
Cumulative COVID-19 fatalities stood at 5,335 since the first case was recorded in March last year.
Kenya has already intensified screening at the border points, particularly on travelers from countries where the new Omicron strain has been detected.
On Monday, Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said the move was among the stringent measures being adopted to ensure that the virus strain does not get its way into the country.
“We are ensuring that any person coming into the country from those countries where this variant has been identified are properly screened. They must be able to show that they have done a PCR test and we will even repeat the test at the point of entry. We will also require a vaccination certificate,” she said.
She further maintained that the government will rely on science and will not close its borders.
The Omicron variant carries 32 mutations which make it highly transmissible and with potential for vaccine escape.
The variant was first detected in Southern Africa and is now posing a new challenge to global efforts to battle the pandemic. Several countries have already re-imposed restrictions many had hoped were a thing of the past.
Several countries have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa, including key travel hub Qatar, as well as the United States, Britain, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.
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