Kenyans and foreigners seeking to get vaccinated in the country will not have the option of choosing the type of vaccine to be administered.
This follows the arrival of the first batch of 880,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine on Monday.
The doses – which form the first of two shipments totalling 1.76 million jabs – were donated by the United States Government via the COVAX facility and transported by UNICEF.
This is the third type of Covid-19 vaccine to be administered in Kenya, and the second to be approved by the government after AstraZeneca. The govt has since banned private companies from shipping and administering the Sputnik V shots from Russia.
China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine will soon be another option after the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) approved its use in the country.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are also expected in the country later this year.
As the Ministry of Health continues to administer the vaccines, Kenya’s Vaccine taskforce has explained why Kenyans will not choose which vaccine to get.
“All these vaccines are the same. When it comes to their efficacy and you look at how they prevent severe disease and death, they are all the same,” Dr Willis Akhwale said on Citizen TV.
The chairperson of the task force on vaccine deployment added: “When you book to get the jab at a facility, you will be given the vaccine that is there. You are not going to choose.”
Akhwale noted
there might be two types of vaccines in some of the facilities where uptake is high, such as Kenyatta National Hospital, and Mbagathi Hospital.
“In lower volume facilities, there will be only one vaccine available, and when you go there, be assured that the WHO-approved vaccines are all the same.”
