A total of 13,218 people have received the Covid-19 booster shots since the exercise was rolled out on January 1.
Kenya opened up the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine booster in the latest vaccination guidelines released less than two weeks ago.
The updated guidelines by the Health Ministry will now see Kenyans who had been fully vaccinated receive an additional dose of either Moderna, AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine six months after completion of the primary series.
“This will go a long way to boost our immunity as new mutations of the virus crop up,” Council of Governors chairman Martin Wambora said.
According to Wambora, 4.1 million people are now fully vaccinated across the 47 counties with the healthcare workers comprising 221,893; 82.1 per cent of all the healthcare workers in the country.
The data shows that 191,275 security officers are now fully vaccinated, 366,945 teachers with the focus being on vaccinating more teachers as schools reopen this week.
Similarly, 16,054 inmates have been fully vaccinated, 21,130 teens aged between the age of 15 and 18 and people aged above 50 were 770,567.
“The new strain of Coronavirus is highly transmissible. In order for us to cut the spread, we must put in place stringent measures to help fight the virus,” Wambora said.
"The council, therefore, urges county governments to create awareness on the safety of the vaccine and increase the vaccination campaign to reach a wide coverage including those that are seeking booster doses, pregnant women and children aged between the ages of 15 to 18.”
The new directives were arrived at following advice from the Kenya National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (KENITAG).
The advisory committee also okayed the mix and matching of vaccines after the World Health Organisation issued interim recommendations on the same.
A Covid-19 booster shot is an additional dose of a vaccine given after the protection provided by the original shot(s) has begun to naturally decrease over time.
A booster tricks the immune system into thinking that it is again seeing a pathogen, so antibody-producing cells, and other immune cells, are recalled into gear.
