NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 11 – Kenya has received another consignment of 1.17 million doses of Pfizer vaccines from the United States government as it steps up efforts to vaccinate a targeted 10 million people by December 25.
The vaccines which arrived aboard an Emirates airline at 6am Saturday were received by Ministry of Health officials led Chairperson of vaccines logistics at the Ministry of Health Dr John Kabuchi.
Also present from the United States Embassy was the CDC Country Director Marc Bulterys.
The arrival of the doses brings the number received in the country to 23,279,646 according to the Ministry of Health.
This donation now brings the total number of COVID-19 jabs donated by the United States to over 6 million.
This comes a day after the Ministry of Health on received 1.17 million additional doses of the Johnson and Johnson doses from the United States government.
The consignment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines was received at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by the National COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Task Force Chairperson Dr Willis Akhwale.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Health on Friday quoted Akhwale as having thanked the US government for supporting Kenya’s efforts towards accelerated vaccination “in a bid to have herd immunity to curtail the spread of the virus”.
He noted that the vaccine was easier to store since it could be kept in normal refrigerators as opposed to Pfizer which require cold chain capacity infrastructure in the form of ultra-modern deep freezers with the ability to meet -70-degree conditions.
Akhwale assured the public of the safety of all deployed vaccines saying the health ministry was keenly monitoring the shelf life of donates vaccines.
The Health Ministry reported Friday that they had crossed the 8 million mark in the total number of persons vaccinated in the country.
Health Cabinet secretary Mutahi Kagwe stated that the country also recorded the highest number of vaccines administered on a single day on Friday.
“As of December 9th 2021, we recorded a total of 125,248 vaccines administered on a single day, 64,148 are first doses while 61,100 are second doses. We are happy that more people are presenting themselves for the first dose compared to last week,” said Kagwe
Kagwe called on all Adults aged 18 years and above and teenagers aged 15-17 years to come out and get vaccinated and urged the public to continue to adhering to the regular Public Health and Social Measures including proper use of face masks, social distancing, handwashing or use of hand sanitizers at all times.
A total of 8,018,413 vaccines had so far been administered across the country by December 10.
“Of these, 4,840,279 were partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated were 3,178,134. The uptake of the second
dose among those who received their first dose was at 57.4 per cent. Proportion of adults fully vaccinated was 11.7 per cent,” The Health Ministry said.
On November 30, President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that 50 percent of COVID-19 vaccines in the country remain unused and urged Kenyans to get the jab to cushion themselves against the virus.
Kenyatta was speaking while delivering his 2021 State of the Nation Address during a joint session of the National Assembly and the Senate on Tuesday where he called on Kenyans to take a personal initiative to enable the government surpass the December 25 target of inoculating 10 million people.
“The COVID-19 vaccines are in stock across our country and in all our counties and already with a daily average rate of over 100, 000 vaccinations, we have a much a smaller target to meet within the next 25 days. I therefore once again call on all Kenyans to rally under the call of 25 days to Christmas to secure their vaccinations,” he said.