This archive report was first published on 6 October 2021.
Published on October 6, 2021, Kenya received a major boost in the fight against Coronavirus with the arrival of the second batch of 252,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
The vaccines landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Wednesday and were directly procured by the Kenya Government.
Dr. Willis Akhwale, the Chairman of the National Taskforce on COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination, stated that the government had made a provision of Sh14.3 billion to procure 13 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines in the current financial year.
The consignment was part of that provision, bringing the total number of Johnson and Johnson doses received in the country so far to 393,600 out of the expected 13 million vaccines.
According to Dr. Akhwale, the vaccines will be used in primary health care facilities and mobile outreach units, increasing the number of fully vaccinated persons in the country since it is a single shot dose.
As of October 5, close to 4 million people had been vaccinated, with the health ministry hoping to vaccinate another 1.8 million people by October 20.
However, Dr. Akhwale expressed concern over the low vaccination rates in some counties, singling out the Western and Nyanza regions.
