Kenya receives 252,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Kenya received 252,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine on Wednesday.

The single-shot vaccine was received by the Chairman of the National Taskforce on COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination in Kenya Dr. Willis Akhwale on behalf of Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi aboard an Emirates flight.

“With the arrival of today’s vaccines, this now amounts to 393,600 of the expected 13 million vaccines,” said Akhwale. “We are happy with the increased doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines as they will be used in our primary health care facilities, as well as our mobile outreach units.”

Kenya made a provision of 14.3 billion Kenyan shillings ($129 million) to procure 13 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines in the current fiscal year. The amount received Wednesday is part of that provision.

A total of 3,990,500 vaccines had been administered across the country as of Oct. 5. Of that number, 3,022,947 Kenyans have been partially vaccinated while those fully vaccinated stand at 967,553.

A total of 130 people tested positive for the virus Wednesday from a sample size of 4,869 over the last 24 hours.

Total cases stand at 250,510, while cumulative tests conducted reached 2,586,260.

The number of people who lost their battles with the virus Wednesday was 25, bringing the death toll to 5,175.

The East African nation has also administered Pfizer, AstraZeneca/Covishield, and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19.

On Sept. 18, Kenya received 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China but the government has not announced whether it has started vaccinating its citizens using the vaccines.