Kenya’s vaccination exercise against the Covid-19 received a boost on Monday morning after 880,460 doses of Moderna vaccines arrived from the United States.
The shipment was received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, by health officials led by Health Principal Secretary (PS) Susan Mochache.
Other officials included Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Mercy Mwangangi, acting Director-General Dr Patrick Amoth, and COVID-19 vaccine taskforce Chairman Dr Willis Akhwale.
Also present were the U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires ad interim, Eric Kneedler, UNICEF Representative to Kenya Maniza Zaman and World Health Organization (WHO) Officer in Charge, and Health System Cluster Lead Dr Mona Almudhwahi.
“We are very grateful to the U.S. government for this generous donation of Moderna vaccines. This will greatly support the ongoing roll-out of Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign and help us reach the target announced by President Kenyatta to vaccinate 10 million Kenyans by the end of December 2021,” said Mochache.
The 880460 are part of 1.7 million doses that the U.S. promised to donate to Kenya and are being delivered via the Gavi-Covax facility.
Kenya has now received two vaccines, the first is AstraZeneca, and Pfizer is also expected next month.
So far, the East African nation has received 3.6 million doses. A few days ago, it received 407000 AstraZeneca doses from the United Kingdom.
PS Mochache noted that Kenyans will not choose the vaccine they prefer, but they will receive what is available.
“We will deploy 1 vaccine to a centre, we do not want to have a cross mix of a vaccine. No vaccine is superior to the other when it comes to the prevention of severe disease and death. Do not wait for a particular brand of the vaccine,” she stated.
©Standard Gazette, 2021. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Standard Gazette with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.