Kenya receives 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China

Kenya has this morning received 200,000 doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.

The consignment arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Saturday at around 9 am, and was received by Health Ministry officials led by Principal Secretary Susan Mochache.

“The vaccines we are receiving today are testament to the cordial relations that exist between our two countries that extend beyond health care to include trade and other sectors of development,” Mochache said.

The PS was in the company of Minister Counsellor to Kenya Zhang Yijun.

Sinopharm is the fifth type of vaccine currently available in the country. Others are AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

 It is a two-shot vaccine with a 28-day gap after administration of the first dose.

Sinopharm is stored at two to eight degrees. “This will therefore fit in very well in the current cold chain storage capacity we have in our vaccine stores,” the PS noted.  

“Although this consignment has been delivered courtesy of our strong bilateral relations, Sinopharm is also available through the Government of Kenya engagement with the COVAX mechanism and we shall be getting more supplies through that platform in the near future,” she added.

The Health PS also urged Kenyans to come out in their numbers and get vaccinated reiterating that all vaccines perform a similar function.  

On Friday, Kenya also received some 795,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the US government.

Mochache said the batch is part of the 2.03 million doses promised by the US government.

She said an additional 1.2 million is expected to arrive late in December.

The latest batch takes to over six million the total number of doses received so far.

So far, 3,290,450 have been administered across the country and only 3.1 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.