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Kenya has today reported 349 new cases of coronavirus, pushing the national tally of positive cases to 94,500.
In a statement to newsrooms on Sunday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said out of the sample size of 5,025, some 334 Kenyans tested positive while 15 were foreigners.
Men who tested positive were 230 while 119 were women.
Nairobi county led in the number of positive cases with 156 followed by Nyeri (34), Kirinyaga (30), Meru (27), Uasin Gishu (25) and Mombasa (17).
The youngest who tested positive in the last 24 hours was an 11-month-old infant while the oldest is 98 years.
Six more patients have succumbed to Covid-19, pushing the fatality tally to 1,639.
Some 176 patients have been discharged after recovering from Covid.
Those discharged from the home-based care programme are 155 while 21 were in various hospitals.
Kenya's total recoveries now stand at 75,735.
"Currently there are 831 patients admitted in various health facilities countrywide and 5,834 on Home-Based Isolation and Care," said a statement from Health CS Mutahi Kagwe.
Meanwhile, the government will spend Sh10 billion to purchase 12 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
It, therefore, means the country will be buying the vaccine for sh833 per dose.
The Ministry of Health has revealed that the 12 million doses will be an addition to the 24 million others of the vaccine the country expects in the first quarter of 2021.
The 24 million doses will be given to Kenya as a member of the Covax vaccine accelerator programme carried out by the World Health Organisation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Kenya is taking part in the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford developed ChAdOx(AZD1222) vaccine through the Kenya Medical Research Institute(Kemri) Wellcome Trust-Kilifi.
However, the trials of this vaccine in the country are at phase one which means the country will be basing its efficacy on the trials carried out in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Health Acting Director General Dr Patrick Amoth said the low price of the vaccine compared to its counterparts is one of the reasons why Kenya settled for it.
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which US, Singapore and Canada have ordered has a price tag of Sh2,000 per dose followed by Moderna’s which costs between sh1,500 and sh1,700 a dose. AstraZeneca goes for about sh400 to sh600 a dose.
Therefore, the government’s plan to purchase 12 million doses from a budgetary allocation of sh10 billion means each dose will cost sh833.
Amoth said the AstraZeneca vaccine is also suitable for the country’s cold chain logistics as it can be stored under temperatures of between two and eight degrees Celsius.
“The other two vaccines require a unique cold chain system that most countries do not have,” said Amoth referring to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Amoth said safety, immunogenicity and efficacy are the three main thresholds the country has used to settle on AstraZeneca.
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