France donates 182,400 coronavirus vaccine doses to Kenya

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenya received 182,400 doses of the AstraZeneca​​​​​​​ coronavirus vaccine from France on Thursday under the UN COVAX facility.

“The Kenyan government is very grateful to the government of France for this generous donation, which will support our national COVID-19 vaccination campaign,” said Chairperson of the COVID Vaccine Deployment Taskforce in Kenya, Dr. Willis Akhwale, during a handover ceremony at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. “We have recently embarked on vaccinating our people for the second dose, so this comes at a critical time.”

French envoy Emmanuel Dagron said: “We hope that these 182, 400 doses of vaccines will help to give access to a second dose to many at-risk Kenyans. President [Emmanuel[ Macron has pledged to give 60 million doses of vaccines to countries in need around the world, including Kenya, before the end of 2021.”

The donation comes as Kenya announced that 566 people have tested positive for the virus, from a sample of 5,344 tested in the past 24 hours. The positivity rate stands at 10.6%, 546 are Kenyans while 20 are foreigners.

Confirmed cases now stand at 187,525 with cumulative tests at 2,001,786.

Total recoveries stand at 176,456 out of which 140,586 are from Home Based Care and Isolation programs, while 35,870 are from various health facilities.

Eleven patients died Thursday from the virus.

Vaccinations in the East African country stand at 1,524,555. Those who have received their first dose are 1,024,244 while second doses are 500,311.