Kenya receives 1 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine

Kenya on Saturday morning received an additional 1,000,176 doses of Pfizer vaccine.

The arrival of the doses brings the number received in the country to 23,279,646.

The consignment received by the Ministry of Health officials was a donation from the US government through the COVAX facility.

This is an addition to the 739,440 doses that were available at the Central vaccine store Kitengela as of December 9.

The first batch of 795,600 doses of Pfizer vaccines arrived in the country on September 17, and another donation of 210,600 doses arrived later.

The consignment of one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine pushes the US donations to over six million.

Data from Pfizer vaccine studies show the vaccine is safe and effective for people as young as 5 years old.

The Pharmacy and Poisons Board a few weeks ago approved the use of Pfizer vaccines for people aged between 15 and 18 years-old.

In the announcement by the Vaccines Deployment Taskforce chairperson Willis Akhwale, PPB was still analysing data on the other vaccines.

He added that lowering of the vaccine age bracket is one of the measures the government is taking to ensure as many Kenyans as possible get vaccinated.

The government of Kenya aims to have at least 10 million people vaccinated by end of the year.

As at December 10, Kenya had vaccinated more than eight million people.

Edited by B.Oruta