Wealthy Kenyans will start getting Covid-19 jabs from private hospitals in July after the government strikes an import deal with a global partnership under the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe told Parliament Thursday that the talks would conclude end of June, paving the way for top private hospitals to join in the second phase of the inoculation plan set for July.
The government seeks to create an option for private hospitals to acquire the vaccines and charge a “minimum surcharge” in the race to broaden inoculation coverage.
Backers of the new initiative reckon it will provide vaccines to vulnerable and wealthy persons who could miss out or are not eligible to be inoculated under the ongoing government scheme.
“The plan is to have this framework by end of June this year so that the private sector joins the roll-out plan in July this year, when we fully actualise phase two of the deployment,” Mr Kagwe said.
Pharmaceutical giants behind the sought-after jabs are restricting sale to the private sector and have given priority to supplies to governments and multilateral organisations like Covax — which hopes to deliver two billion doses to poor countries.
This restriction has seen a number of tycoons, politicians and royalty from across the world descend in recent months on the United Arab Emirates, where friends in high places have helped them secure early access to coronavirus vaccines.
In Kenya, the government hopes to have 16 million people inoculated over the next two years with the priority being health workers, the elderly and the vulnerable.
Only a “small minority” who wish to pay for the shots would have the option in the controlled private market.
Kenya is offering the Covid-19 vaccine shots free of charge to its citizens at $7.70 (Sh845.80) per shot as negotiated under the Covax facility.
Kenya requires Sh34 billion to ship in 36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by June next year when it expects to have 16 million people inoculated.