410,000 AstraZeneca doses from UK received at JKIA

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410,000 AstraZeneca doses from UK received at JKIA
410,000 AstraZeneca doses from UK received at JKIA

Africa-PressKenya. Kenya on Saturday received 410,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government.

The consignment was received by officials from the ministry of health led by Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi.

The vaccine is expected to boost the country’s ongoing vaccination program.

Speaking at the airport, Mwangangi thanked the government of UK on behalf of Kenya.

“Our capacity for vaccine deployment remains robust. As is common knowledge our efforts have been greatly affected by supply constraints. When we receive donations like these from friends and well-wishers, it’s a deserved shot in the arm for our vaccination efforts,” Mwangangi said.

In an effort to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta’s targets that aim to ensure that at least 10 million Kenyans are vaccinated by Christmas this year and 26 million people by end of next year.

Kenya is also expecting to receive 1,760,000 doses of Pfizer from the US government.

A further 235,000 doses of Astrazeneca are expected in the country from Greece with an extra 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca set to arrive in the country from Lativia as part of bilateral donations.

The government announced on Wednesday during the resumption of the administration of the first Covid jab to the priority groups.

To attain herd immunity the country is supposed to vaccinate at least 60 per cent of the population.

The Health Ministry towards the end of May halted the issuance of the first AstraZeneca dose after experiencing challenges in the supply chain, thus restricting the available doses to giving the second dose to those who had already received the first.

But in his tour to the UK, the President secured 817,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines during his trip to London.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Uhuru in Britain.

These are part of the first tranche of the UK’s commitment to share 100 million vaccine doses internationally by next June.

Through bilateral donations, Kenya expects to receive 1.7 million doses of Pfizer from the US Government, 410,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government, 235,000 doses of AstraZeneca from Greece and another 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca from Latvia.

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