Kenya: Health Ministry Says Close to 840,000 Astrazeneca Doses Are Expired

Nairobi — The Ministry of Health says close to 840,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses have expired and cannot be used.

Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Mercy Mwangangi stated that following this, the serum will have to be disposed of.

“Since the COVID-19 regulations were vacated, we have seen a decline in the number of Kenyans coming for vaccines,” stated Mwangangi.

She indicated that Nakuru leads with 35,000 unutilized vaccine doses followed by Busia which has not used 27,980 doses.

She at the same time called on Kenyans not yet vaccinated to make good use of available vaccines to protect themselves from COVID-19.

She cited complacency among Kenyans leading to loss of the doses.

She further noted that another one million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine are at risk of going to waste if they will not have been utilized by April 14, 2022.

“Kenyans who are eligible for second doses and the booster shots are not coming, we want to urge Kenyans to keep coming for the vaccines because any expired dose is a lost opportunity to save lives,” she said.

Mwangangi also revealed that preference to certain types of vaccines and vaccine hesitancy as main challenges in the vaccination exercise.

As part of measures of ensuring that vaccines don’t go to waste, Mwangangi said that Kenya will only accept vaccine donations with 4 months shelf life at the time of arrival.

According to the Ministry, 17.3 million vaccine doses have been administered to date.

Of these, 7,967,097 are partially vaccinated while 7,958,138 are fully vaccinated. Another 1,178,671 doses have been administered to those aged 15 to 17 years & 270,998 are booster doses.