No COVID-19 Vaccine for Kenyan Children, Government Says

The government says children will not receive the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available in the country.

Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in the Health Ministry Dr. Mercy Mwangangi pointed out that the two approved vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna—are yet to be tested on children, hence they cannot be administered to them.

Kenya is expected to receive 24 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility for free from February, according to the acting director-general of health Patrick Amoth.

COVAX was created by several organizations including GAVI, CEPI, and WHO to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

The facility is expected to deliver two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines for millions of people mainly in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific by the end of 2021.

The government through the Ministry of Health also ordered an additional 12 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at a cost of Sh10 billion. The order was submitted last month.

The Health Ministry said the vaccines will be first issued to frontline workers and those at high risk of contracting COVID-19.

About 430,000 healthcare workers will be the first to be immunized followed by Kenyans aged above 50 years who are approximated to be 5.3 million.

The next batch of beneficiaries will be teachers, uniformed security forces, and Kenyans with pre-existing medical conditions.