By Grace Kuria
Kenya on Monday received 880,460 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in yet another boost to the ongoing vaccination drive that targets to vaccinate 10 million people by the end of the year.
According to the country’s health ministry, the Moderna Vaccine doses, donated via COVAX facility, is the second vaccine in Kenya’s program after AstraZeneca with at least 1,615,687 people having received at least one dose and 780,377 fully vaccinated as of August 22.
Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said the development marked an important milestone in Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
Mochache said the government has revised its vaccine deployment plan taking into consideration the availability of multiple vaccines with an aim of vaccinating 150,000 people each day before the end of September adding that the focus is on protecting those at the greatest risk of infection.
Further adding that the government has put in place elaborate mechanisms to ensure it has the capacity to deploy all the vaccines across the country including Pfizer that requires storage of -70 degrees.
Kenya’s government plans to vaccinate 10 million people by the end of 2021, with 26 million people expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of next year.
Already 2.9 percent of the entire adult population in the country has been vaccinated.