Kenya will receive COVID-19 vaccine in small portions from 2021, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that Kenya will receive the COVID-19 vaccine in small portions from 2021 until the country has enough to vaccinate the people at "the highest priority" when the vaccine is available, according to a news report by Daily Nation.

In a report published on its website on Monday this week, the WHO said that each country, including Kenya, will get doses that vaccinate one in every five people, which is equivalent to 9.4 million people.

However, in the first stages when the vaccine is expected to be scarce, Kenya will receive doses in little portions until the Ministry of Health has enough to vaccinate three percent of the population.

In the document, WHO outlined how it would distribute the vaccine to Kenya and all the 156 countries that signed up for Covax, a Covid-19 vaccine allocation plan which is led by WHO Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (Cepi).

Covax was created to ensure the "equitable access and allocation of Covid-19 health products" between the world's richest countries and those in the developing world.

Health Director-General Patrick Amoth said: "We joined the (Covax) Covid-19 facility under WHO and GAVI to ensure that we are able to access any vaccines that may result from all the current trials." The report went ahead to specify who the 3 percent should be.