Health Ministry denies claims about COVID-19 vaccine trial in Kenya

As Kenya's COVID-19 cases stand at 343, the government has denied any knowledge about any intended vaccine trials in the country.

Speaking recently during a radio interview, Health Ministry CAS Dr. Aman Rashid told journalists that authorities were unaware of any plans by Oxford University to undertake COVID-19 vaccine trials in Kenya.

The pioneer trial for the global pandemic trial kicked off on Thursday in Oxford University (Europe). Among 800 volunteers, two were injected with the vaccine, with the university stating that the trials may extend to other nations like Kenya.

50% of the volunteers will be reportedly injected with the vaccine, while the rest will have a meningitis control vaccine administered.

With the current cost for testing one patient being Sh2,500, CAS Aman stated that the cost is likely to go down after Kenya Medical Research Institute (KeMRI) begin producing testing kits.

As of yesterday, Kenya had recorded 343 cases. Out of the total cases, 98 persons had reportedly recovered from the infection, while 14 others had succumbed to the pandemic.

According to the Worldometre global statistics and as of today morning, global infections stood at 2,837,198 cases. Out of these, 197,702 had died of the infection, while another 809,036 recovered.

Currently, there are 1,830,460 active cases globally after deducting those who have already recovered and others who have died too.

Of the active cases, 1,772,123 were reportedly mild cases, while 53,337 were critically ill. The United States still tops the list having 925,758 reported cases, among them 52,217 deaths and 110,432 recoveries.