School children aged 15 years and above can now get Covid-19 jab

School-going children aged 15 years and above can now get a Covid-19 shot, the Education Ministry has said.

However, the vaccination will not take place at the school compound.

The Saturday Standard has established that this being an examination term, the ban on school activities remains in force.

Parents with children in the stated age bracket will present their children to various centres for the jab.

Early Learning and Basic Education PS Julius Jwan, in a circular dated February 3, 2021, directed Regional Directors of Education, County Directors of Education, and the Sub-County Directors to oversee the campaign.

The directive was issued the same day the government launched a two-week mass vaccination exercise targeting 14 million Kenyans.

Speaking during the launch on Thursday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said at least one million Kenyans will be vaccinated daily. To meet the daily target, Matiang’i tasked the administrators, from County Commissioners to assistant chiefs, to treat the campaign seriously.

‘‘I would like to tell the Deputy County Commissioners, chiefs and local chiefs as we agreed last week that we must cooperate with the Ministry of Health to meet the target,’’ he said.

Matiang’i said the government aims to meet the World Health Organisation’s target of 70 per cent of a vaccinated population by June.

The Interior CS said the mass vaccination drive had by Thursday netted more than 706,000 Kenyans against a target of 2.3 million.

Kenya has so far fully vaccinated slightly more than 12 million citizens, however, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe says this only translates to only 20 per cent of the population being vaccinated.

He urged Kenyans to get vaccinated to avoid being admitted to the hospital. Kagwe said 99 per cent of those currently admitted in hospitals are unvaccinated. 

Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director General Major Mohammed Badi said the County targets to vaccinate more than 50 per cent of the population. Badi said Nairobi County started vaccination last year in March, and so far 1.66 million or 41 per cent of the population has been vaccinated for the first time. About 1.9 million Nairobi residents are fully vaccinated.

‘‘We intend to vaccinate up to 70 per cent in this mass vaccination,” Badi said there are currently 159 vaccination centres in the county, which is enough to serve the 4.5 million city residents.

Dr. Juliet Nabyonga, the WHO country representative, said, “With new variants, vaccination is one of the mitigative interventions.”