Kenya rolls out Sh900m plan to bolster vaccine cold chain capacity
With support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Health is set to expand Kenya’s cold chain capacity at a cost of Sh900 million to support Covid-19 vaccines deployment.
The plan will include establishing 25 new county vaccine stores, improving the technical capacity in the 36 sub-county stores as well as the expansion of storage systems in at least 1,177 centres across the country.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the process will ensure no interruption on childhood immunization programme even as the ministry scales up the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
“We have now revised our deployment plan with an aim of accelerating the programme so that we reach the targets. The revised plan provides clear guidance to counties in terms of expanding vaccination posts and conducting outreaches,” he added.
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This comes as the country gears up to receive the first consignment of Pfizer vaccines donated by the US government.
The arrival of the first batch of the Pfizer, which requires ultra-cold chain temperatures of -70 degrees will make it the fourth type of vaccine to be rolled out in Kenya alongside AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
On Monday, the ministry received an additional 210,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the government of Poland.
So far over three million vaccines have been administered across the country, with at least 827,000 people having been fully vaccinated. This represents the proportion of the adult population fully vaccinated at 3.04 per cent.
Over 136,000 healthcare workers have received their two doses, over 125,000 teachers, over 70,000 security officers, 251,342 those aged 58 years and above and 244,495 members of the public.
Kenya targets to vaccinate at least 10 million people by December and 26 million by end of 2022.
