Africa-Press – Kenya. Health Cabinet secretary Mutahi Kagwe has denied allegations that some Covid-19 vaccine doses are missing from the National vaccine store.
In a press statement released on Wednesday, Mutahi says the media reported 27,818,320 vaccines had been received by the Ministry, yet in actuality, only 27,606,120 vaccine doses had been received as of March 31 this year.
There were social media reports alleging that a number of Covid-19 vaccines could not be accounted for.
But according to the Outgoing CS, the vaccines procured so far had been distributed to different counties.
“As of March 31, 2022, 24,299,680 had been distributed from the National vaccine store to regional stores, county stores and health facilities leaving a balance of 3,306,440,” he said.
“There was no deficit observed and therefore the figure of 1,566 973 doses being quoted is erroneous.”
Mutahi added that some vaccines had expired while still in store at the county and regional levels.
He said a total of 843,718 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were reported to have expired as of March 31, 2022, and not 697,624 doses.
“To confirm, this is captured in our daily reports as uploaded and shared with the public on our ministry of health website,” he said.
Globally, more than 240 million doses of covid vaccines have been reported to expire since the beginning of the vaccination program.
According to the World Health Organization policy on the use of opened multidose vaccine vials, at least 10-30% vaccine wastage is expected.
This is because vaccine vials are usable for 6 hours once opened and therefore remaining doses will be discarded after 6 hours to prevent contamination.
“As per the immunization policy, the vaccine vial must be opened even when only one client is available at the health facility to ensure that clients access services on time. In the month of March 2022, the average national overall wastage was 15 per cent,” he stated.
Mutahi said that the ministry had provided a standard training package and policy guidance in the deployment of the vaccines.
In the press release, the ministry reiterated its commitment to ensuring all adults and children aged 12 and above are fully vaccinated.
“Hospitalization and Covid -19 related deaths have reduced since the vaccination program began,”he said.
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