Kenya aims to provide COVID-19 jab free, says Mutahi Kagwe

With the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine in Kenya, the government will provide the vaccine free of cost, said Mutahi Kagwe, the Health Cabinet Secretary, according to a report by Ghanaweb.

In a media brief on Wednesday, Kagwe reportedly said that the COVID-19 jab will be integrated into the immunization program of Kenya and will be offered without charging any cost.

The country is recorded to have 95,431 positive COVID-19 cases, with over 1,652 deaths, and a total of 76,720 recoveries according to the data released by the Health Ministry of Kenya.

With a total of 1.7 million deaths worldwide, a total of 79 million active COVID-19 cases are been recorded across the world, the report stated.

The country has applied to the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, asking for permission to introduce the COVID-19 jab in Kenya, said the Health Ministry of the country.

Being a public-private global health partnership Gavi reportedly aims to provide enough immunization access in poor countries.

However, free jabs, which estimates approx 24 million doses, expected from Gavi's Covax Facility are said to be sufficient to vaccinate a total of Kenya's twenty percent, according to Patrick Amoth, the Health-Director-General of Kenya.

The Health Ministry of Kenya is also aiming to provide more vaccine of COVID-19 doses to an additional ten percent of Kenya's population in the first half of 2021, as per the report.