Kirinyaga launches another round of accelerated mass Covid-19 vaccination

Kirinyaga county government has launched a 10-day accelerated mass Covid-19 vaccination drive targeting about 50,000 unvaccinated adults.

The county Director of Medical Services Dr. George Karoki has said a team of 49 medics will be doing village to village outreach in all the five sub-counties to help reach out to those who have not been vaccinated.

Karoki further said all the county 29 Coronavirus vaccination centres will also be offering the doses.

Speaking while launching the initiative at the Kerugoya County Referral Hospital, the County Director said each of the sub-county is targeting to vaccinate about 10,000 people.

He said the county has received enough doses from the Ministry of Health to undertake he accelerated programme.

“We are asking those who have not been vaccinated to take advantage of this door-to-door vaccination drive so as to give themselves herd immunity against Covid-19. Coronavirus is still there and we must not drop the ball,” he stressed.

A similar vaccination initiative was undertaken during preparations for Mashujaa celebrations, which were held at Wang’uru stadium last year.

Governor Anne Waiguru has asked residents to come out and be vaccinated because this was the surest way of protecting themselves.

Waiguru said the county’s health team has so far vaccinated 242,021 persons against the disease since the exercise began, against a target population of 442,769 adults above 18 years, while about 1770 people have already received booster doses.

“Covid-19 is still with us, let’s all get a vaccinated, the fear that was there initially is now over and there is no reason why someone should not receive the doses,” said the governor.

In summary, about 150,781 persons have received the first dose translating to 34% of the population, while 106,990 have received the second dose, translating into 24% of the total adult population of above 18 years.

Meanwhile, as at February 2, 2022 there were seven confirmed positive cases in the county hospitals, five of the patients were on oxygen, with two others in isolation wards.