Kenya has so far received 24.6 million doses of vaccines, including Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sinopharm.
As of Wednesday, 11.7 million doses had been administered across the country, meaning Kenya has an unused stock of close to 12.9 million vaccines.
Some 5.2 million people have been fully vaccinated as per the data by the Health ministry, representing 19.2 per cent of the targeted adult population.
Another 38,929 doses of Pfizer have been administered to teenagers aged between 15 and 18 years, while 127,149 people have received their booster shots.
Six counties are yet to hit 50 booster shots issued to their populations. They include Wajir that is yet to administer a single booster dose, Mandera with 12, Lamu with 16, Tana River with 30, Garissa with 40 and Marsabit with 44.
“With the number of vaccine doses we have in Kenya, if anybody now got severe Covid they will only have themselves to blame. We have enough doses, we have put in a lot of effort, we have a lot of support and we are urging Kenyans to get fully vaccinated and get boosted.”
The ministry early this week revised vaccination targets to ensure that people at risk are fully vaccinated.
In the plan, the ministry aims to fully vaccinate at least 19 million adults by the end of June, while at the same time focusing on reaching at least 29 million teenagers aged between 15 and 17 years with the Pfizer vaccine.
Akhwale said the plan is to ensure 4.2 million Kenyans who had been fully vaccinated by the end of December last year get their booster shots.
Kenya is banking on the improving global Covid-19 vaccines supply to actualise her plan to have the entire 27 million target population inoculated before the end of this year.
The country, just like other African nations, struggled to vaccinate at least 10 per cent of the population before the end of 2021, and depended mostly on bilateral donations from wealthier countries to drive the vaccination campaign.
The Health ministry said the country will receive additional vaccines before the end of this month and more in February.
“Vaccines supply situation globally is now good, maybe even an oversupply. It is no longer a challenge. The supply is good from all sources either through bilateral donations or through Covax,” Akhwale said.
According to the World Health Organization, the overall vaccine supply to Covax is anticipated to continue to grow substantially this year, but a lot more needs to be done to achieve 70 per cent vaccine coverage in all countries.
“Manufacturers, vaccine-producing and high-coverage countries must prioritise vaccine equity and transparency, including the sharing of information about manufacturing capacity and supply schedules with Covax, as well as vaccine access plans,” WHO said in a statement.
Edited by A.N
