Nyeri county government in partnership with Amref Health Africa and the University of Maryland has planned a massive vaccination drive on Mashujaa Day.
The drive will be in areas where many people are expected to gather such as bus parks, popular eateries, shopping centres, markets and institutions of learning.
Governor Mutahi Kahiga said on Tuesday the move to open the 21 new centres in all the eight subcounties is aimed at improving the vaccine coverage.
“The target population for the exercise will be all persons aged 18 years and above who have not received the Covid-19 vaccine and all those who are due for their second dose ,” Kahiga said.
The governor added that the other existing vaccination centres will continue operating.
Noting that the vaccines flow is becoming more reliable, Governor Kahiga urged residents to get inoculated.
Nyeri expects to vaccinate at least 11,000 people in the drive.
It had as of Tuesday recorded 4,280 cases of Covid-19 disease and 304 deaths.
At present, 31 patients are admitted in the county Covid-19 isolation facilities — Mt Kenya Hospital (8) and King’ong’o prison (23).
Outspan and KNH-Othaya hospitals have none.
“Of these, seven are on supplemental oxygen. This is in comparison to 129 patients admitted one month ago, when 63 were on supplemental oxygen.
"In the last one month, the county witnessed a drop in Covid-19 infections -positivity rates of between 5-10 per cent as well as decreased Covid-19 admissions,” the governor said.
Kahiga said the improvement was as a result of the vaccination efforts, improved case management, increased availability of oxygen at the health facilities and Covid-19 prevention and enforcement efforts.
According to the latest county data, 95 per cent of patients admitted in Covid-19 isolation units have not been vaccinated.
So far, 133,820 of Nyeri residents, representing 27 per cent, have taken their first jab, while 12 per cent, which is 56,626, are now fully vaccinated.
“The county ranks second in the country in Covid-19 vaccine coverage. Among our other priority groups, we have now fully vaccinated about 1,610 of our security officers, 3,519 health workers and 5,505 teachers,” he noted.
The county, he said, has adopted various strategies to increase vaccination coverage to attaining 50 per cent of the targeted population of 218,000 by December 2021.
This, he said, will be achieved through implementation of an ambitious Nyeri county Covid-19 vaccination macro-plan that outlines strategies aimed at achieving this target.
The strategies include increasing the number of fixed vaccination centres from 35 to 67, scheduled outreaches in all county health facilities that are not fixed sites and rollout in markets, bus stops, slums, churches and institutions of higher learning.
Edited by EKibii
