10m Kenyans set to get Covid-19 vaccine for free, ministry assures

Ten million Kenyans are set to get the Covid-19 vaccine at no cost, according to the Ministry of Health.

“Kenyans will be able to access the vaccine whether they are able to pay or not. I am able to say that confidently,” Dr Collins Tabu, Head of Immunization at the ministry said on Thursday.

In an interview with KTN, the official said the ministry is ready to handle, store and distribute the vaccines once available in the country.

He said the country is assured of getting doses enough to cover 10 million Kenyans through the World Health Organisation-led COVAX Facility. This is a donor-driven initiative to help poor countries access the vaccines.

According to Tabu, Kenya is expecting that by January the vaccines to be approved for distribution in the country.

“By then things will be clear, but we are open to other options as they become available,” he added.

First to be vaccinated will be health workers followed by the elderly, depending on the availability of the vaccines.

“As more doses become available, security agencies will be considered as well as those in schools,” said the official. 

Dr Collins Tabu: I can confidently say that Kenyans will be able to access the covid19 vaccine whether they can pay or not.#KTNPrime pic.twitter.com/qxn6MRla7B — KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) December 9, 2020

There are about 40,000 health workers and about two million elderly Kenyans aged over 60 years, according to national statistics records. 

Tabu assured Kenyans that the country is prepared to undertake the exercise in its 10,000 health facilities.

However, he did not say which or when the proposed vaccine will reach the country, largely indicating that this will depend on the COVAX Facility. 

But without mentioning brands, he indicated that the ministry’s preference is for vaccines which do not require extremely cold storage conditions.

Health facilities

Kenya, he explained has the capacity to store vaccines at -20 degrees Celsius at county level health facilities and at two to eight degrees Celsius at lower level facilities. 

These he said consists of about 10,000 health facilities though it has not been decided whether to use the hospital networks or an outreach programme.

At the national level he said there is limited capacity that can store vaccines at extreme temperatures. 

“Our preference, however, is to acquire vaccines we are able to handle within the countrywide cold chain storage capacity,” said Tabu.

This effectively rules out the leading candidates – the Pfizer vaccine, which should be stored at -70 degrees Celsius and to some extent the Moderna vaccine storable at -20 degrees Celsius. 

This makes the Oxford University/AstraZeneca the front-runner for Kenya which can be stored within normal refrigeration. The vaccine is also being tested locally though still in the early stages.

But for the Oxford University vaccine also called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; Kenyans may have to wait for unknown period as the developers are still preparing to apply for emergency use. 

An approval of the Oxford vaccine especially by the European Medicines Agency, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands is important for Kenya because it works closely with the WHO.

A WHO approval may make the registration process quicker for Kenya as it may not have to do its own safety and efficacy assessments.

Otherwise, Kenya and the COVAX Facility are open to engage with other Covid-19 vaccine developers, including Russia and China.