- To date, slightly over 1,000 adverse effects following vaccination have been reported.
- In order to increase uptake of the vaccine among the elderly population, the ministry plans to conduct targeted outreaches.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The government will be involving community health volunteers in tracing Kenyans who have defaulted on their second Covid-19 jab.
Kenya began issuance of second jabs in June, but data from the Health ministry Chanjo-KE platform shows that almost three months later, about 1,000,000 people have yet to show up for their second dose.
This has been attributed to some individuals opting to wait for another type of vaccine for their second jab even though Kenya has ruled out the possibility of adopting the mix-and-match strategy amid scanty scientific evidence on the same.
“Some are saying 'I am waiting for Johnson & Johnson, I want to get Moderna, or I want to get Pfizer'. We are telling them AstraZeneca is also sufficient. You need to get that second dose because we have not adopted the policy of mix and match yet,” vaccines deployment taskforce chair Dr Willis Akhwale said on Monday.
“What we will be doing is through the Chanjo system, we are going to be getting alerts on anybody who has defaulted and we are going to work with community health workers to reach the defaulters.”
As of Sunday, 2.7 million vaccines had been administered across the country; 1.9 million being first doses and 802,926 being second, with the uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose being at 41.2 per cent.
The proportion of the adult population fully vaccinated stands at 2.95 per cent. The government targets to vaccinate at least 10 million people by December and 26 million by end of 2022.
With regard to the uptake of the second dose among priority groups, 133,898 are healthcare workers, 122,349 are teachers, 67,256 are security officers, 239,461 are people aged 58 years and above, while 239,962 constitute the rest of the public.
To increase uptake of the vaccine among the elderly population, the ministry plans to conduct targeted outreaches close to them with community health volunteers expected to go to the villages to get them listed to facilitate the outreach camps.
The government plans to increase the vaccination posts from the current 800 to at least 3,000 by the end of the year as one of the strategies to help reduce the barrier of physical distance and access to vaccination centres.
“The other thing we are doing is to give the information to the elderly because there is this misinformation that if you have hypertension or diabetes or cancer the vaccine will make your situation worse,” Akhwale said.
“The truth of the matter is that more than anybody else you need that vaccine because those are the conditions that will lead to death.”
To date, slightly over 1,000 adverse effects following immunisation have been reported through the Pharmacy and Poisons Board monitoring system as well as through the Chanjo-KE system, with six of them being closely monitored.
“None of the side events has been serious. We have not had any fatality and those that are closely monitored, there are indications for them and they may be monitored for a period of time and if nothing happens then that is really closed.”
However, those who have been fully vaccinated have been advised to continue adhering to the existing containment measures such as social distancing and proper masking as they can still get infected even though the disease might not be severe.
-Edited by SKanyara