KENYA – Kenya’s vaccination drive has received a major boost after a further 407,000 doses of the Astrazeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrived in the country.

The vaccines, are a follow up donation for the previous 410,000 doses the UK government had donated to Kenya in July. The vaccines are expected to boost the ongoing vaccination campaign that has seen 2,101,403 people receive at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

The latest consignment has raised the number of vaccines received in the country to 2,730,100 with at least 754,542 people having received their second doses by close of the day Tuesday. The proportion of adults fully vaccinated now stands at 2.8 percent.

Speaking at the Jommo Kenyatta International Airport while receiving the donation, Acting Director-General of health Dr. Patrick Amoth said the country is expecting to receive 1.7 million doses of Moderna soon, 393,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in the next few weeks and 1.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in September this year.

The first vaccination began on 5th March 2021 with county vaccinations kicking off on 8th of March 2021. The second dose vaccination began on 28th May 2021.

The government is conducting the vaccination free of charge and is aiming to vaccinate at least 10 million adults by the end of the year. So far, 2,154,825 jabs have been administered, 760,920 of which are second doses.

As for Covid-19 infections, the health ministry has reported 1,506 new COVID-19 infections from a sample size of 9,840 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 224,400.

In the same period, 24 deaths were recorded, taking the country’s cumulative virus-related fatalities to 4,378.

Both the number of infections and deaths registered by Kenya are the seventh-highest in Africa.

The East African country is experiencing a third wave of the pandemic, with a steady increase in its caseload and death toll.

In response, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an extension of COVID-19 containment measures by 60 days.

The government-imposed measures include bans on large public gatherings, a nationwide nighttime curfew and the mandatory wearing of face coverings.

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