This archive report was first published on 3 May 2021.
On May 3, 2021, the National Treasury set aside more than Sh7 billion for the procurement of new Covid-19 vaccines from different manufacturers to avoid uncertainties.
The move aims to ensure continuity of the vaccination process, which has been affected by supply chain disruptions.
Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Planning, Ukur Yattani, explained that the government has decided to diversify procurement of vaccines in terms of source of supply.
"We are not only targeting a particular vaccine because of the challenge of supply. We place an order today but given the queue we might not get it immediately so based on that we have looked at different options," he said.
The Ministry of Health is in discussions with Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to procure seven million doses of Pfizer vaccine and another 10 million doses of Johnson & Johnson.
Dr. Willis Akhwale, the Chairman of the task force on vaccines, stated that the seven million doses of Pfizer will cover 3.5 million Kenyans, while Johnson & Johnson will cover 10 million people since it is a one-dose vaccine.
However, Akhwale added that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may not be available until August.
The task force is also revising the deployment plans to consider multiple vaccines, with the goal of vaccinating the entire adult population in Kenya, estimated to be 24.5 million people, by the end of June next year.
Those who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be catered for by donations from Covax, which has promised to deliver more doses by the end of May.
Kenya has recorded 137 new Covid-19 cases from a sample size of 1,641, with a positivity rate of 8.3 per cent. 18 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours.
As of today, 887,034 people have been vaccinated in the country.
