Kenya Announces New Coronavirus Vaccination Program

The Ministry of Health said Friday it would vaccinate 1.25 million people for the coronavirus between February and June “when it is expected that global vaccine stocks will be limited.”

It will be the first phase of a three-phase vaccination program against a second wave of the pandemic that Kenya is facing.

The second phase is planned to witness the vaccination of 9.7 million more Kenyans from July 2021 to June 2022, targeting those older than 50 well as those above 18 “with underlying health conditions,” as this will be when more vaccines become available, according to the ministry.

The third phase target 4.9 million from “all other vulnerable populations like those on congregate settings.” It could also run concurrently with the second phase “depending on availability of adequate vaccines.”

Health officials also announced the intention to build a capacity of more than 23,000 health care workers, including 8,000 “health volunteers in areas of vaccine administration, logistics management, data capture, reporting and monitoring.”

The announcement comes as Kenya confirmed 141 people tested positive for the virus in a sample of 5,644, bringing the number of infections to 100,563.

Confirmed deaths from COVID-19 stand at 1,753, while 83,821 recoveries have been confirmed.

Authorities have conducted 1,177,811 tests in the country of almost 55 million.