State raise alarm over low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines
Ministry of Health has raised concern over the low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in the country which has resulted in nearly 840,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine expiring and being rendered ineffective.
Speaking during a press conference, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi stated that following the low uptake, the serum will have to be disposed of.
“Despite our hugely successful campaigns that saw us on certain days able to administer 200,000 doses in a day and more than 3 million over a two-week period the country may not be able to utilise all the AstraZeneca doses available before expiry,” said Mwangangi.
According to the ministry, every county has some expiries with Nakuru having the most (35,000), followed by Busia (27,980), Kajiado (25,770), Kakamega (12,870) and Kwale (11,730).
She, at the same time, called on Kenyans who are not yet vaccinated to make good use of available vaccines to protect themselves from Covid-19.
“Fellow Kenyans AstraZeneca has had particular unique challenges in its administration. Some of these challenges has been complacency by ourselves as Kenyans in being able to take up the jab following the reduction of the positivity rate and Covid-19 admissions,” she said.
Mwangangi stated that Kenya will only accept vaccine donations with a four-month shelf life at the time of arrival as part of measures to ensure that vaccines do not go to waste
To date, 17.3 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to the ministry records.
Of these, 7,967,097 are partially vaccinated while 7,958,138 are fully vaccinated. Another 1,178,671 doses have been administered to those aged 15 to 17 years and 270,998 are booster doses.
