Kenya is still unable to attain its weekly Covid-19 vaccination targets weeks to the 10 million target by December, the Health ministry data reveals.
According to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, the ministry had set out to vaccinate 80, 000 people every week by end of September and 150,000 by December.
“Our weekday average daily average is however between 60,000 to 70, 000 people,” he said in a statement.
Less than a million people have been vaccinated since Mashujaa Day, despite the Ministry of Health setting an ambitious target of 10 million inoculations by the end of December. Dr Ahmed Kalebi, a consultant pathologist based in Nairobi, confirmed that the charts are showing a decline in the uptake of the doses.
“The number of vaccine doses administered daily has fallen sharply since Mashujaa Day. This is clearly seen on the tracking charts showing the decline in daily administered doses,” he said.
The expert cited a lack of urgency by Kenyans in getting the jab. “There is complacency and lack of urgency now that the infection rates has fallen to an all-time low. It means there are few reported cases and even fewer deaths, so people are not as scared as before,” Dr Kalebi said.
This comes at a time when the government has increased its stockpile of available doses now standing at over 3.5 million. They include AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson (J&J). Dr Kalebi said the increased demand for vaccines the country witnessed during the fourth wave was driven by the high caseload that left many people scared.
African Population Health Research Centre (APHRC) Executive Director Catherine Kyobutungi said: “There is going to be a spike. If you vaccinate a million people in a month with the first jab, you have to wait for at least two months for them to be eligible for the second.”
“The curfew was the last barrier left in people’s minds. Kenyans tend to feel that Covid-19 is far away or not there anymore, and therefore don’t see the need to vaccinate,” said Dr Kyobutungi.
“We still have communication and messaging issues. The ministry needs to establish whether they are effectively communicating because some Kenyans are still surprised vaccines have side effects.”
National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Task Force head Willis Akhwale said the government reviewed the initial inoculation plan to address distribution challenges, especially in the north.
“To achieve an increase in the average number of daily vaccinations from 40,000 to 150,000 by December, inoculation posts will be increased from 800 to 3,000. This will include both fixed posts and outreaches, which will make it easy to get to the mobile populations,” he said.
When the government received a consignment of 252,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccines on October 6, the ministry reported that, while some counties had done very well in the uptake of the doses, some in Western and Nyanza had done poorly.
Kakamega, with an eligible population of a million, had only fully vaccinated slightly over 20,000 people. Homa Bay County had vaccinated 10,000 people from an eligible population of 600,000. About 5.6 million people have been vaccinated with 3.7 million being partially inoculated, which is 6.3 percent of the population.
As of Saturday, Nairobi County had the highest number with 19.7 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, followed by Nyeri (17.4 per cent), Kiambu (10.9 per cent), Nyandarua (9.2 per cent), Uasin Gishu with (9.0 per cent), Kisumu (8.1 per cent) and Mombasa (7.9 per cent)
Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit have vaccinated less than one per cent of their populations.
