Kenya Gets First Batch of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine

Kenya has received the first consignment of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to boost the ongoing vaccination program.

The 200,000 vaccine doses donated by the Chinese government arrived in the country on Saturday morning.

Sinopharm becomes the fifth coronavirus jab to land in Kenya after AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer.

It is a two-dose vaccine with a 28-day gap between the first and second doses.

Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache, who received the consignment at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), said Sinopharm’s storage condition of two to eight degrees fits well in the cold chain storage capacity available in the country’s vaccine stores.

“Our Health care workers have already been trained on the administration of this vaccine, as is the case with all the other vaccines we have so far received,” said Mochache.

The arrival of the Sinopharm vaccines comes hours after Kenya also received the first batch of 795,600 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

An additional 1,236,690 Pfizer vaccine doses donated by the US government are expected to arrive in the country in the coming weeks.

Kenya targets to inoculate 10 million people by December this year and the entire 26 million adult population by end of June 2022.