Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Director-General Mohamed Badi says the Capital city has received 72,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
Badi spoke Tuesday during the launch of the Coronavirus vaccination exercise across the county in a ceremony held at the Mutuini Hospital in Dagoretti.
The NMS boss noted Nairobi has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths since the onset of the pandemic.
“Nairobi accounts for 44 percent of all the cases recorded and has registered 681 deaths so far and therefore we are planning to move with speed to ensure that all the healthcare workers are vaccinated and in phase two we move to the vulnerable and those living with underlying conditions,” Badi said.
“We are currently implementing Phase 1 where our target will be health care workers, Community Health Volunteers and facility support staff, who are our front-line workers,” he added.
NMS is looking to immunize more than 5,000 health care workers (HCW) in the public sector, 22,496 in the private sector and additional 7,300 community health volunteers.
“We want to ensure that everyone is vaccinated in the long run because as we all know anybody can contract it and the effects are bad,” Badi said.
This week, eight of the 16 health facilities identified by the Badi-led administration for the vaccination drive will be dispensing the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine.
The facilities are National Spinal Injury Hospital, Mathare Hospital, Moi airbase Hospital, Mbagathi Hospital, Memorial Hospital, Kenya University Medical Centre as well as Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and State House Clinic.
The next phase will include Pumwani maternity hospital, Jamaa Mission Hospital, St Francis Community Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Aga Khan Hospital, Ruaraka Uhai Neema Hospital, Coptic Hospital Ngong Road, Nairobi Hospital, and the Mater Misericodiae Hospital.
“The second phase will target those with conditions like diabetes and hypertension among others while the third phase will target all other eligible persons’. I want to assure all health workers that we will vaccinate all of you in both the public and the private facilities,” said Badi.
