Health Cabinet secretary Mutahi Kagwe has called on the World community to stop the Covid-19 vaccine apartheid.

Speaking in Kiambu County Governor’s office grounds when he flagged off outreach service and enhanced communication campaign during the launch of the National Accelerated Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, Mr Kagwe urged the global community to unite and ensure equity in access of Covid-19 vaccines, adding that international solidarity during this time is critical.

The CS noted that some countries are already vaccinating children while others are yet to vaccinate their adult population, adding that evidence and science provided has shown that there is no need to intensify children campaigns.

"There are no geographical boundaries when it comes to coronavirus transmission. A person who is not vaccinated in Kenya can transmit the virus to Uganda, the United Kingdom, the US, and elsewhere," he said.

The CS also called on Johnson & Johnson to speed up vaccine delivery to Kenya to enable the country to seamlessly continue with the ongoing vaccination, adding that the Kenyan government has injected billions of shillings to secure 13 million doses.

Read also: Employers spared as MPs fix NHIF fee at Sh6000 per year for all Kenyans

The government has also appealed to India to meet its commitment of delivering the AstraZeneca vaccine as promised.

"We are appealing to countries like India because billions of shillings were deposited under the Covax facility so that they can supply the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines across the globe."

Further, the CS assured that no vaccines will expire, saying they have made proper plans and will ensure they are properly stored and used up before expiry.

"We have a cold chain to ensure vaccines do not expire. We are expecting to roll out the Pfizer vaccine next week as some of the syringes will arrive on Saturday. We have one million of the vaccines in the country and are expecting more," he said.

As of today, a total of 3,761,876 vaccines had so far been administered across the country. Of these, the total first doses were 2,856,972 while the second doses were 904,904.

The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose was at 31.7 per cent.  The proportion of adults fully vaccinated was 3.3 per cent.

The campaign targets to have 10 million vaccinations in the next three months, with a mid-term target of 5.8 million vaccinations by Mashujaa day celebrations on October 20.