The Health ministry has started training regional depot managers and healthcare workers on how to handle Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine.
The training is part of the mechanisms put in place by the ministry to ensure there is no wastage of the vaccines.
Kenya expects 1.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in mid-September after receiving ultra-cold chain freezers from Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). The freezers have a storage capacity of three million doses.
The country is also expecting 15 portable freezers from the UPS Foundation valued at Sh15 million that will be used to transport the vaccines at the required temperatures.
The freezers will be distributed to the central vaccine store in Kitengela and all nine regional stores across the country.
From the regional stores, the vaccines will be transported to selected vaccination posts at temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius, as is common with other vaccines.
According to the ministry, the UPS Foundation will manage the transportation from the central store in Kitengela to the regional stores using the soft boxes.
The soft boxes maintain ultra-cold chain temperatures using dry ice. Dry ice is needed to maintain proper temperatures in the thermal shipping container.
With freezers, the shelf life of the vaccines can be guaranteed for six months.
“We pushed it to September to allow us to get the cold chain into place. We have now received 12 ultra-cold chain freezers of -70 degrees centigrade,” vaccines deployment taskforce chairman Dr Willis Akhwale said.
“They are being set up for distribution next week [this week] including what we call specialised soft boxes to transport them at -70 degrees centigrade.”
Pfizer vaccine is among the five types of vaccines whose use have been authorised in the country. The others are Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines.
Last week, 880,000 doses of Moderna were shipped in from the US.
With more doses of AstraZeneca expected into the country in the coming few days, the government targets to begin inoculating at least 150,000 people daily by the end of September.
The country will on Thursday receive an additional 358,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Canadian government. The consignment is expected to land at JKIA at 7am.
“Within the Covax mechanism outside the US donation in September we should get 270,000 doses,” Akhwale said.
By Monday, 2,773,239 doses had been administered across the country, with 2.95 per cent of the targeted adult population having been fully vaccinated.
Out of the 2.7 million doses, 801,583 are second doses while 1,968,656 are first doses. The uptake of the second dose among those who have taken their first dose stands at 40.9 per cent.
In terms of uptake of the second dose as per the priority groups, 134,150 are healthcare workers, 122,602 are teachers, 67,377 are security officers, 240,646 are people aged 58 years and above, while 239,808 are members of the public.
Edited by A.N
