State targets 800,000 KCSE school leavers for Covid vaccination

The government is targeting more than 800,000 KCSE school leavers for Covid-19 vaccination as part of its accelerated strategy to vaccinate half of the teenage population.

Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache has urged parents and guardians to encourage teenagers to get vaccinated to protect vulnerable senior citizens against Covid-19.

The PS made the appeal when she presided over the official launch of accelerated Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Kibra, Nairobi, on Thursday, June 2.

The government, PS Mochache said, targets to vaccinate 100 per cent adults and 50 per cent of the teenage population.

The six weeks’ campaign is a jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Nairobi Metropolitan Services, WHO, Unicef and Usaid. 

Since March, 12, 2020, when the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya, the Ministry of Health has reported a total of 324,976 cases and 5,651 fatalities.

Mochache hailed Nairobi for attaining the second-best coverage nationally at 48.8% of adults and at least 115,000 persons have received booster shots.

Despite these gains, the PS regretted that there remains a large population that is unvaccinated.

“We need to reach an additional 1.5 million adults and vaccinate 300,000 teenagers in Nairobi.  We recently witnessed an increase in cases of Covid-19 in highly populated areas in Nairobi which poses the risk of  another wave,” she said.

“We have ordered and received vaccines and distributed them throughout the country and we continue to do so. We no longer have a shortage,” Mochache said.

Currently 8.7 million Kenyans are fully vaccinated translating to 31 per cent of the population. 

(Edited by Tabnacha O)