Kenya has received a total of 358,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Canada which is another shot in the arm needed for its vaccination efforts.
The vaccines came just a few days after receiving another 880,460 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines donation from the US.
By Wednesday, Kenya had given 2,773,239 doses across the country.
While receiving the vaccines at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Health Permanent Secretary Susan Mochache said that the additional vaccines will help in accelerating the campaign to fully vaccinate most of the Kenyan population.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe issued a recent warning against theft of the vaccines that are used for illegal vaccinations between friends and relatives.
“No vaccinations should take place outside the Ministry of Health designated vaccination approved sites. These sites are available at the Ministry of Health website,” he said
“The MOH_Kenya working in collaboration with county health teams are solely responsible for the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. This is because they have to ensure the maintenance of the cold chain system and the potency of the vaccines,” he added
Kagwe was emphatic that the administration of any vaccine should only be done by a qualified and duly registered clinician or nursing staff. These staff must also have received recent training in the administration of the vaccine.
“Any other person doing so will be in contravention of the law. Vaccinations that are not properly administered will lead to unnecessary side effects that could potentially result in deaths,’ he said
Kagwe has since directed that counties should account for all vaccines issued to them. This should be in the form of a weekly county logistics report outlining doses received, doses used, dose balances, and the number of people vaccinated.