Kenya to Receive 24 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses in February

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe says doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the country from next month.

Kagwe divulged that the first batch of 24 million doses the government has procured will arrive in Nairobi by the second week of February.

He indicated that frontline healthcare workers will be the first to be vaccinated followed by teachers and law enforcement officers.

CS Kagwe said they will also allow the private sector to order more COVID-19 vaccine doses to complement the government’s efforts in the fight against the pandemic.

“There are three sources of the vaccine; the first one will be the government order of vaccine that we have already placed as the Kenya government, the second is through CDC-Africa which also has a purchasing platform organized by African countries and the third source of vaccines will be the private sector,” said Kagwe.

Kagwe asserted that the Health Ministry ordered the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine after it was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the government of Kenya.

Reports indicate that the AstraZeneca vaccine is easier to transport and store compared to Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius.

On Monday, the UK became the first nation to immunize its citizens with the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine following its approval.