Be patient, don’t panic: Ministry of Health tells Kenyans on Covid-19 vaccine

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe takes Covid-19 Vaccine at State House on March 26, 2021.

The Ministry of Health has called on younger Kenyans and non-essential service providers to be patient and allow those in Phase One of inoculation to get the Covid-19 vaccine first.

"We are happy that there is great demand for the vaccine by Kenyans, but we are appealing to the younger people and other professions currently not in Phase One to be patient,” read a statement from the Ministry of Health CS Mutahi Kagwe.

“Let us not panic or become anxious," he added.

Some 196,435 people have been vaccinated since the inoculation process began, of which, 111,458 are men and 84,977 are women.

According to the Health Ministry, 263 adverse events from the Covid-19 vaccination have been reported, seven of which are under investigation by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.

In terms of vaccine distribution by professional category, the Ministry of Health says 74,698 health workers, 14,364 security officers, 24,615 teachers and 83,210 others have already received the jab.

The government has dispatched 800,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine countrywide.

So far, the balance of vaccines that are at the national level is 314,000, while at the regional level there are 261,500 still left.

The Ministry of Health says the government expects to receive another 2.5 million vaccines in May and in total, 20 million doses from the Covax facility this calendar year.

The government aims to vaccinate 26 million Kenyans by June next year.

In numbers: Covid-19 today

Some 984 people have tested positive for Covid-19 from a sample size of 5,318 tested in the last 24 hours; a positivity rate of 18.5 per cent. The total confirmed positive cases are now 135,042 and cumulative tests so far conducted are 1,494,777.

A total of 388 patients have recovered from the disease of whom, 314 are from the Home-Based and Isolation Care and 74 are from various health facilities. Total recoveries now stand at 93,067.

Fourteen deaths have been reported today, two occurred in the last 24 hours and 12 are late death reports from facility record audits that occurred on diverse dates. The cumulative fatalities are now at 2,167.

Some 1,557 patients are currently admitted to various health facilities countrywide, while 4,879 patients are on Home Based Isolation and Care. 

About 161 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 48 of whom are on ventilatory support and 104 on supplemental oxygen. Nine patients are on observation.

A total of 252 patients are separately on supplementary oxygen with 240 of them in the general wards and 12 in the High Dependency Unit (HDU).