Low Covid-19 vaccine uptake recorded in northern regions

Northern counties continue to record low Covid-19 vaccine uptake more than eight months since the exercise began.

Despite every effort to boost uptake, some areas have recorded less than two per cent.

For instance, Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit have so far vaccinated 1.9 per cent, 1.8 per cent, 1.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent of their target population respectively with the first dose.

Others include Turkana, Tana River, Narok and West Pokot which are at two per cent, 2.4 per cent, 2.8 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively.

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe now blames low Covid-19 vaccine uptake on poor coordination and lack of efficiency by the county governments.

With 7.5 million vaccines in the country, just 4.5 million had been administered as at Sunday, with 1.2 million people being fully vaccinated.

The target is to have at least 10 million people vaccinated by December and the entire adult population of 26 million vaccinated by end of next year.

Kagwe now says the disparities in the numbers in different counties depict failure on the part of the county governments to mobilise their residents to come out and take the jab.

“It depends on the ability of county governments to work with the Health ministry to ensure that the vaccines are reaching people, to ensure that people are going to vaccination centres and also to communicate and tell people it is dangerous not to have been vaccinated,” Kagwe said.

“You can’t start making excuses and saying that in this county we don’t have this and we don’t have the other; every county has exactly the same things.

"It is a question of efficiency, of commitment, dedication and is a question of realisation that you need to save those people in those counties,” he added.

With less than 72 days to the end of the year, Kenya needs to reach at least 5.5 million people with the vaccines; at least 76,388 vaccinations per day or at least 3,000 per hour.

Kenya has been depending on vaccine donations through bilateral deals after supply chain challenges affected the Covax facility.

Kenya had ordered for 24 million doses through the platform and another 13 million doses of Johnson and Johnson through the African Vaccines Acquisition Trust sharing platform. To date, just slightly above one million have been received.

The ministry has however dismissed vaccine hesitancy as the reason for the low uptake.

There has been a disparity in the uptake of the vaccines in the various counties with some like Nairobi having at least 30 per cent of the residents vaccinated, with others lagging behind with less than two per cent.

Others include Nyeri with 26 per cent of the adult population partially vaccinated, Kiambu with 18 per cent, Kirinyaga and Laikipia with 19 per cent and Nyandarua, Taita Taveta, Murang’a with 16 per cent respectively.

“We have rolled out mobile vaccinations and we have seen a very high uptake in some counties. There are some counties with one per cent even as Nairobi is at 30, Nyeri at 25 and others over 20,” Kagwe said.

The low uptake in counties in the northern part of the country has been blamed on the vastness of the counties as well as the nomadic nature of the residents.

The region has been prioritised in the issuance of the single shot Johnson and Johnson.

“Counties such as Mandera are vast areas with pastoralist communities, hence we came up with a work plan to ensure such counties get help especially in distribution of vaccines,” Health DG Patrick Amoth said.

“We have already talked to partners working in the ASAL areas and some such as Red Cross have pledged to help in the outreaches. They are ready to start as early as next week,” Head of vaccines deployment taskforce Willis Akhwale said.

The government has prioritised the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers, teachers, security personnel, those with comorbid conditions and people aged above 50.

Health data shows that 80 per cent of deaths reported in the country to date have been recorded in people aged 58 and above.

“We need to improve in the way we get vaccines to people, so we really need to move out of institutions and into where people are, we need to be more proactive,” Health CAS Rashid Aman said.

“The other target of December again we are working on our projections on what we expect to come into the country and we are going to keep our eye on the ball to make sure we meet these targets,” Aman added.

To date, Kenya has rolled out five vaccines in the country. They include AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Moderna and Sinopharm.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)