Kenya receives 407,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the U.K

Kenya has received 407,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine from the United Kingdom.

This brings the total number of vaccines donated recently to Kenya by the UK to 817,000 doses.

The second batch of doses, transported by UNICEF via the COVAX scheme, were received at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday evening by officials led by Ministry of Health Acting Director General Dr. Patrick Amoth, British Deputy High Commissioner Julius Court, UNICEF Chief of Health Yaron Wolman, and WHO Health Specialist Sergon Kibet.

According to Dr. Amoth, the doses will go towards supporting the country’s target to vaccinate 10 million adults by the end of December 2021.

“We are now receiving the second batch of vaccines that have been donated by the United Kingdom Government to boost our national COVID-19 vaccination programme,” Dr. Patrick Amoth said.

“In addition to supporting the ongoing roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines to our health workers, teachers other essential workers and Kenyans older than 58 years, the vaccines we have received today, will greatly support our target to vaccinate 10 million adults by the end of December 2021. We are therefore very grateful to the United Kingdom Government for this generous donation.”

On his part, British Deputy High Commissioner Julius Court said the donation is part of 100 million doses that the UK pledged to donate across the world by June 2022.

“The donation was agreed in President Kenyatta’s visit to London last month, and just last week the High Commissioner saw some of those vaccines in arms in Nairobi at the Lions SightFirst clinic, serving vulnerable communities nearby in Kangemi,” he said.

“We’ve had an extremely strong partnership with Kenya tackling this pandemic, from donating vaccines, support on genomic sequencing to track new variants, to trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK and Kenya.”

Meanwhile, Health Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Dr Mercy Mwangangi said that at least 500,000 Kenyans have received the first and second doses of vaccines against the coronavirus.

Speaking to Radio Citizen, Dr. Mwangangi added that 2.1 million doses have been administered countrywide.