Kenya has finally decided to start mass vaccinations of its citizens.
With the arrival of thousands more AstraZeneca doses from European countries and pending further donations from international vaccine assistance programmes by foundations that will help the continent through WHO and the African Union, the government has decided to implement a campaign to convince the entire adult population to immunise by the end of the year, with the aim of reaching at least 10 million vaccinated. This could allow Kenya to catch up with the countries most advanced in the prevention campaign against Covid-19 and obtain the Green Pass to allow the gradual reopening of all relations with other States and allow both its citizens the freedom to travel abroad and those who come to Kenya to return to their country without having to undergo a regime of quarantine and isolation, as is currently the case.
The National Multi-Agency Command Centre (NMACC) on Covid-19, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), started the vaccination programme yesterday. Sunday, 8 August, in six centres in Nairobi's densely populated Embakasi district.
A number of Catholic and Protestant churches are involved as well as market areas of Kariobangi, Dandora and Soweto, as well as the bus terminus.
Among the first to turn up to be inoculated are many young people who have been waiting a long time to be vaccinated, since until now the possibility was only given to those over 58 years of age.
At the same time as the vaccination campaign began, politicians in several counties publicly declared that they were following the government's instructions and asked their citizens not to listen to the tendentious rumours that the vaccine was harmful, could cause infertility or other health problems.
The head of the vaccine task force Willis Akhwale, announcing the arrival of another 180,000 doses of AstraZeneca from Greece, confirmed that the government aims to vaccinate 10 million people by the end of the year.
The process of speeding up vaccinations is essential, because lately the pace of vaccination has been very slow, about 50,000 doses per day, or 0.1%.
Only 2.6% of the population has so far received both doses of the vaccine, and more than 1 million people are waiting for the second dose.
Since early August, the average Covid-19 case rate compared to the number of swabs taken in Kenya has been around 15 percent, well above the World Health Organisation's (WHO) threshold of five percent for controlling infection. In the last 24 hours, 32 deaths were recorded and the number of patients admitted to intensive care units increased from 109 to 133.