Kenya sets daily Covid vaccination target at 150,000 shots
In a move to ramp up vaccination against Covid-19, the Ministry of Health has set a target of administering 150,000 vaccine doses daily until September.
The move follows the expansion of vaccine storage capacity as well as receipt of millions of doses from donor countries in recent weeks.
Kenya received 12-70 degree centigrade freezers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which is capable of storing up to three million doses of vaccines, and will aid in vaccine storage.
The country is also expecting an additional 15 portable freezers from the United States’ UPS Foundation.
Statistics from the ministry show that last week, Kenya attained a daily vaccination rate of 40,000 people with the figure hitting a record high of 70,000 shots last Friday.
Read also: US ships Moderna vaccine to Kenya amid delta variant surge
However, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said “the first phase of our vaccination programme that ended in June was hampered by global supply constraints beyond our control. Despite that, Kenya is making good and steady progress towards achieving its goal of protecting its citizens against this pandemic.”
Meanwhile, the ministry also intends to increase vaccination centers from 800 to 3,000.
“We plan to allocate one vaccine type to each vaccination post. We do not want to have a cross mix of vaccines within facilities so that those designated to offer Pfizer will offer Pfizer, those designated to offer Moderna or AstraZeneca will do so. This will enable people to choose which post to be vaccinated at,” Health PS Susan Mochache explained.
Kenya’s portfolio of Covid-19 vaccines has continued to widen after a batch of 880,460 Moderna vaccines arrived in the country on Monday, August 23, making Moderna the second vaccine to be deployed in the country after AstraZeneca which was rolled out in March.
This brings to over 3.6 million the total number of doses so far received in the country with 2.3 million having already been administered.
So far, over 1.6 million Kenyans have received their first dose and over 780,000 having been fully vaccinated representing 2.9 per cent of the adult population.
The ministry is targeting to vaccinate at least 10 million people by December.
