Africa-Press – Kenya. The Ministry of Health has dismissed reports by the Auditor General alleging that a number of Covid-19 vaccine doses cannot be traced.
The ministry has said there was no deficit observed as at March 31 this year, adding that the average national overall wastage was 15 per cent.
“In line with the World Health Organization policy on the use of opened multidose vaccine vials, at least 10-30 per cent vaccine wastage at the health facility level is expected,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
“This is because Covid-19 vaccine vials are only usable for 6 hours once opened, and therefore remaining doses will be discarded after 6 hours to prevent contamination.”
The CS noted that Covid-19 vaccine vials have more than one dose per vial ranging from 6-14 doses per vial adding that 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.
According to the figures released by the ministry, as of March 2022, 27,606,120 doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been received at the National Vaccines Store and not 27,818,320 doses quoted in the media.
Kagwe said 97 per cent of the doses or 26,708,520 were donated through Gavi COVAX, AVAT (Mastercard) and bilateral external sources while the Kenya government procured 897,600 doses of Janssen Vaccine in 2021.
All the J&J doses were dispatched to counties by March 21, 2022, Kagwe said.
Kagwe further noted that as of March 31, 2022, a total of 24,299,680 doses had been distributed from the NVS to regional stores, county stores and health facilities leaving a balance of 3,306,440.
According to Kagwe, a total of 843,718 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine had been reported as expired as at March 30, 2022 at county and regional level as opposed to the figure of 697,624 doses quoted.
“Chanjo KE data download of doses administered as of March 31, 2022 indicates total doses administered by counties as 17,891,768 as opposed to 16,933,213 quoted,” he said.
“To confirm, this is captured in our daily reports as uploaded and shared with the public on the Ministry of Health website.”
The report by Nancy Gathungu showed that at least 23 counties could not account for some 1, 314, 088 Covid-19 vaccines valued at Sh810 million.
Gathungu made the revelations in a Special Audit report on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout for various counties.
The audit further revealed that thousands of doses were also not administered due to failure to utilise the jabs within the stipulated timelines upon opening the vials.
“Some facilities failed to monitor temperatures during transportation of vaccines and a result it was not possible to ascertain deviations beyond the acceptable WHO standards,” the report reads.
In some instances, expired vaccines were found stored in fridges beyond the 30 days period posing the risk of the same being administered.
The audit revealed there were inherent weaknesses with the health systems inadequate for response in the event of a pandemic, and that most counties lacked budgets for Covid-19 response.
In what may bring to question the authenticity of the vaccination data, the audit established that vaccinators had unlimited access rights to the chanjo system, including posting, reversing and editing.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)
For More News And Analysis About Kenya Follow Africa-Press
