Amoth: Kenya has not reported death, blood clots from Covid-19 vaccination

Kenya has not reported any deaths or cases of blood clots from the ongoing vaccination against Covid-19.

Acting Director-General for Ministry of Health Dr Patrick Amoth on Thursday said although some cases of side effects have been reported including headache, pain, fatigue and muscle pain, among others, no severe side effects had been recorded.

"It is true we have noted cases of thrombosis and increased menstrual bleeding among women but we have not recorded any blood clot or death to that matter," Amoth said.

Amoth said the government has put mechanisms in place to ensure all the vaccines meet all the WHO requirements before they are administered.

He further dismissed claims that the country had received vaccines that have a short expiry time, saying all the vaccines that have been received have a shelf life of more than three months.

Amoth said Kenya has, so far, received 5,147,030 doses of the vaccines, of which, 2,519,400 doses of AstraZeneca are as a result of bilateral donations, 1,760,780 are of Moderna, 725,250 (AstraZeneca) and 141,600 are of J&J.

According to Amoth, Kenya has made an order for 13 million doses. 2,934,285 doses have been administered so far with 2,117,075 being the first dose and 817,210-second dose.

"We ordered for 10 million doses but due to discount and change in pricing, we expect to receive 13 million doses," he said.

Amoth, who refuted reports that the government was planning to allow 'mix and match' of the vaccines, said the country will rely more on the J&J vaccines going forward.

"You can only rely on mix and match if the availability of the doses is assured. Currently, Moderna and Pfizer are not assured that is why we changed our mix and match policy," he said.

He said there is evidence of local transmission in Kenya following confirmation of the Alpha (UK), Beta (SA), and Delta (India) variants among patients who have no travel history to the Coast, Nairobi and Western Counties.

The main circulating variant in the region is the Delta, a variant that is highly transmissible and more infectious.

Globally, 223,378,314 cases have been confirmed with 4,608,724 deaths reported and 5.57 billion doses being administered.

In Kenya, of the 2,429,337 tests conducted since the first case was reported in March 2020, some 241,783 cases have been confirmed with 230,095 recoveries and 4,830 deaths. This translates to a fatality rate of two per cent.

Nairobi leads among the top ten counties with the highest caseload with 1506 cases followed by Kiambu with 420, Nakuru 347, Uasin Gishu 239, Muranga 207 and Nyandarua 179.

Kajiado County has 157 cases, Laikipia 147, Nyeri 143 and Mombasa 127 cases.

Males are most affected of the total infections at 58 per cent compared to females at 42 per cent.