Health authorities in Kenya say over 840, 000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine have expired because they were not utilized.
The doses had an expiry date of February 28.
The Ministry of Health on Wednesday said most of the expired doses came from Nakuru (35,790), Busia (27,980), Kajiado (25,770), Kakamega (12,870), and Kwale (11,730) counties.
By January 2022, Kenya had about 2.2 million doses of the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccines doses.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe in his daily briefing disclosed that the low intake of the vaccine is due to complacency by Kenyans following a reduction in the positivity rate and the number of COVID-19 admissions.
“The daily vaccination rate has reduced from a high of 252,000 recorded early February to an average of 30,000-40,000 daily. The uptake of the 2nd dose to ensure full vaccination status is declining while out of nearly 900,000 Kenyans eligible for a booster dose only 270,000 have turned up and received their shots,” he noted.
“The MoH continues to witness vaccine hesitancy attributed to rumors and misinformation, especially around fertility concerns,” Kagwe noted with emphasis that they had no scientific evidence.
“This is the time for those people who are yet to get vaccinated to come out and visit our vaccination centres. And this is critical because failure to take available doses could potentially mean that we have expiries on our hands.” Dr Mercy Mwangangi, CAS Health. pic.twitter.com/52obqYav2p
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) March 23, 2022
The Ministry says they have administered 17. 3 million doses out of which 7.9 million are those who have received their first dose. Among the population, only 7.9 million are fully vaccinated.
In addition, 1 million doses have been administered to those between 15 to 17 years and 270,998 have been administered as booster doses.
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