•The initial plan was to vaccinate 26 million people by the end of next year
•Due to availability of enough doses in the country, the plan is to ramp up the exercise to reach as many people as possible.
Image: MAGDALINE SAYA
The Health Ministry has revised the Covid-19 vaccination targets of 26 million to March 2022.
The initial plan was to vaccinate 26 million people by the end of next year.
But the ministry has noted that due to availability of enough doses in the country, the plan is to ramp up the exercise to reach as many people as possible.
Ag Director of Preventive and Promotive health services Dr Andrew Mulwa said the country is expecting at least 12 million doses before the end of this month, which would be enough to meet the targets.
“We have had challenges in the supply chain for Covid-19 vaccines in this country in the early months but I can stand here and confirm that even the 10 million vaccines that we had targeted to have by December this year we already have 9.3 million vaccines in the country,” Mulwa said on Thursday.
“We have some 12 million vaccines in the pipeline so our target of reaching 27 million by end of December 2022 has been brought forward to March 2022 because the vaccines are here and we will have the vaccines not by the end of the year but the end of this month,” he added.
As at Wednesday, 5.8 million vaccines had been administered across the country with the proportion of the targeted population fully vaccinated standing at 7.2 per cent.
This comes even as experts warned of a possible fifth wave in the country.
The modeling teams have projected that another Covid-19 wave is expected to sweep the country from mid this month with a peak in January.
“No one prays for waves but we have to rely on science and data so it is projected that is the fifth wave begins mid this month with a peak end of January but we pray it never occurs, but how do we pray? We pray as we vaccinate,” Mulwa noted.
“We also want to open the economy and you have seen what has happened in the last few weeks and we want to continue with that momentum so that we restore livelihoods.”
The experts have noted that unlike was the case during the previous waves, the public is now more informed about the disease and the containment measures put in place such as the social distancing, masking and washing of hands.
Similarly, the focus by the government on vaccinating the most vulnerable populations who would otherwise bear the brutality of any future waves has been listed as a plus.