Kenya has received an additional 55,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the government of Latvia.
The donation from Latvia arrived in the country on Saturday morning, bringing the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses received in the country to 4,266,500.
The vaccines were received by the Chairman of the Vaccine Procurement and Logistics Committee John Kibuchi and the acting Ambassador to the EU in Kenya Katrin Hagemann at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
"We want to appreciate the support we have received from the people of Latvia," Kibuchi said.
Hagemann on her part said this was a special consignment given that Latva has no presence in the African continent.
"We submitted the request that Kenya is in need of more vaccines and they responded and with the help of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism we were able to support the transport to Kenya," she said.
The additional vaccines came hours after Kenya received 141,000 doses of the single shot Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccines.
Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi who received the consignment on behalf of CS Health Sen. Mutahi Kagwe asked Kenyans to avail themselves of the jabs, saying that the government has increased the availability of vaccines.
“I would also like to urge those who have already received their first dose of AstraZeneca to ensure that they go ahead and get their second dose. We now have enough stops within the country so that there should be no hesitancy when it comes to coming to get your second dose of AstraZeneca,” Mwangangi said.
At least 240,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines are expected to arrive in the country next week.
As of Friday, 2,809,389 vaccinations had been administered in the country; 2,020,009 being first doses while 809,380 people had been fully vaccinated representing 2.97% of the entire adult population.
Edited by CM
