Kenya sounds alarm of expiring COVID-19 vaccines as 840K doses expire
The government
is now raising the alarm over the low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Kenya which
has so far led to the expiry of close to 1 million of the life-saving doses.
In a press
briefing on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said 840,00 doses of AstraZeneca
COVID-19 vaccines that the country received through the COVAX facility have already
expired and will therefore have to be discarded.
This she
said is despite concerted efforts by government agencies to conduct mass
vaccination drives and sensitization campaigns on the need for vaccination.
“Despite
our hugely successful campaigns that saw us on certain days able to administer 200,000
doses in a day and more than 3 million over a two-week period the country may
not be able to utilize all the AstraZeneca doses available before expiry,” said the Ministry of Health CAS Dr. Mercy Mwangangi.
“We have
reviewed data returns from all the 47 counties, preliminary reports indicate
that close to 840,000 AstraZeneca doses from COVAX facility have expired.
According to
the Ministry, statistics indicate that every county has some expiries with the
highest being Nakuru (35,000) followed by Busia (27,980), Kajiado (25,770), Kakamega
(12,870) and Kwale (11,730).
Dr.
Mwangangi blamed the low uptake of the vaccines in the country to laxity among
Kenyans following the drop in the number of infections as well as relaxation of
COVID-19 containment measures.
“Fellow
Kenyans AstraZeneca has had particular unique challenges in its administration.
Some of these challenges has been complacency by ourselves as Kenyans in being
able to take up the jab following the reduction of the positivity rate and COVID-19
admissions,” she said.
As of
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 a total of 17,374,904 vaccines had been administered
across the country.
Of these,
he said, 7,967,097 are partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated are
7,958,138.
“Proportion
of adults fully vaccinated was 29.2%. The government is working towards
vaccinating a targeted population of 27,246,033,” said MoH in a statement.
The government
is now urging Kenyans who have not been vaccinated to come out and receive the doses.
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