Kenya has received 564,480 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to boost the ongoing vaccination exercise.
According to the Ministry of Health, the consignment which was received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday night was donated by the US Government.
“The Kenya government thanks the US government for this kind gesture. The Vaccines will be distributed countrywide to boost the ongoing vaccination campaign against the Coronavirus disease in the country,” Health Ministry stated.
The country has surpassed the six million mark in Covid-19 vaccinations administered by Wednesday.
As of yesterday, a total of 6,245,698 vaccines had been administered across the country as of November 17, 2021.
Of these, 3,944,709 were partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated were 2,300,989.
In a statement to media houses, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe stated that the shelf life for the Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine has been extended to six months. This only applies to the vaccine doses from the US.
Those coming through COVAX or the EU have a shelf life of 4.5 months.
“This only applies to vaccine doses coming from the US, usually donated doses that are shipped at this temperature. For doses coming through COVAX or the EU, the shelf-life at 2-8◦C remains 4.5 months,” the statement read in part.
The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose was at 54.8 per cent, while the proportion of adults fully vaccinated was 8.4 per cent.
The ministry further called on Kenyans to get vaccinated against coronavirus to hit the 10 million mark by December 2021.
