The country has received another 407,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the United Kingdom government.
The latest consignment of 407,000 doses of the AstraZeneca was received by the Acting Director-General of health Dr. Patrick Amoth at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday night.
According to the Ministry of Health, the vaccines, donated by the UK government, are expected to boost the ongoing vaccination campaign that has seen 2,101,403 people receive at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
“The Ministry of Health has now received a total of 817,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine as a contribution of the British government in Kenya’s fight against Covid-19,” Amoth said.
He added that the country is expecting to receive 1.7 million doses of Moderna soon, 393,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in the next few weeks and 1.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in September this year.
UK Deputy High Commissioner to Kenya, Julius Court said that the donation was a testament to the cordial relations between Kenya and the United Kingdom.
“I’m delighted that the second shipment of our total donation of 817,000 COVID-19 vaccines has arrived in Kenya,” he said.
The vaccines will help boost the country’s vaccination efforts at a time it is battling a surge in infections.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Kenya’s Chief of Health Dr. Yaron Wolma said no one is safe until everyone is safe, especially with new and more infectious variants of the virus emerging.
“Vaccine equity is essential to ensure that everyone at risk from Covid-19 gets vaccinated wherever they are,” Wolma said.
The UK government had donated another 410,000 doses to Kenya on 31st July this year following Kenyatta’s recent tour of the UK.
The latest consignment has raised the number of vaccines received in the country to 2,730,100 with at least 754,542 people having received their second doses by yesterday.
The proportion of adults fully vaccinated now stands at 2.8 per cent.