Kenya Vaccinates Over 2.5% of Population Against Covid-19

The number of people vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus in Kenya has reached more than 1,768,519, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

The number translates to 2.5 per cent of its population since the vaccination campaign began on 5th March 2021. 

County vaccinations commenced on the 8th of March 2021.

On the other hand, the second dose vaccination began on 28th May 2021.

“As of August 5th, 2021, a total of 1,768,519 vaccines had been administered across the country with total first doses standing at 1,084,013 & 684,506-second doses had been administered. 

The proportion of adults fully vaccinated in the country stood at 2.5% by the close of Friday,” the Ministry announced.

The number of coronavirus cases in Kenya reached 209,823 on Friday, with 1,561 new cases and cumulative tests so far conducted are 2,176,118.

The virus death toll in Kenya increased to 4,088 with thirty-one fatalities.

The total recoveries rose to 195,787 after 102 new recovered cases were added.

Kenya’s positivity rate is at 15.5 per cent.

Just like the rest of Africa, Kenya’s vaccination process has been extremely slow given the limited number of vaccine doses available.

This has forced the World Health Organisation (WHO)to call for a moratorium on booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines.

WHO wants all countries to reach at least 10 per cent of their populations vaccinated by the end of September.

“Even while hundreds of millions of people are still waiting for their first dose, some rich countries are moving towards booster doses,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general at WHO said when speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

“To make that happen, we need everyone’s cooperation, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines,” he added.

End of July, Kenya received 410,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United Kingdom Government and transported by UNICEF.

On Friday, a further 180,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were received from Greece. 

“The latest consignment, which was a donation from the Greek government, pushes the number of vaccines received in the country to 2,323,100,” the ministry said.

Kenya aims to vaccinate 26 million of every eligible citizen by the end of June 202.