Written By John Mutiso 📝
The Ministry of Health said at least 840,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses have already expired and therefore cannot be used.
Chief Administrative Secretary at the Ministry of Health Dr Mercy Mwangangi made the announcement on Wednesday morning, March 23.
While adressing a press conference at Afya House in Nairobi, Mwangangi said that in January this year, 2.2 million AstraZeneca doses were donated through the Covax facility, with a shelf life of until February 28, 2022.
She also called on Kenyans who have not yet vaccinated to make good use of available vaccines to protect themselves from COVID-19.
“Since the COVID-19 regulations were vacated, we have seen a decline in the number of Kenyans coming for vaccines. If Kenyans do not show up and get vaccinated in the next three weeks, another 1 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines will expire,” she said.
This is happening despite concerted efforts by government agencies to conduct mass vaccination drives and sensitization campaigns on the need for vaccination.
“Despite our hugely successful campaigns that saw us on certain days able to administer 200,000 doses in a day and more than 3 million over a two-week period, the country may not be able to utilize all the AstraZeneca doses available before expiry,” said Mwangangi.
“We have reviewed data returns from all the 47 counties, preliminary reports indicate that close to 840,000 AstraZeneca doses from COVAX facility have expired,” she added.
The Ministry has also noted that statistics indicate that every county has some expiries with the highest being Nakuru at 35,000 followed by Busia 27,980, Kajiado 25,770, Kakamega 12,870 and Kwale 11,730.
The CAS said that the country will not be accepting vaccines with less than four months shelf live to avoid such instances where vaccines expire.
According to the Ministry, 17.3 million vaccine doses have been administered to date.
Of these, 7,967,097 are partially vaccinated while 7,958,138 are fully vaccinated. Another 1,178,671 doses have been administered to those aged 15 to 17 years & 270,998 are booster doses.
The government is now urging Kenyans who have not been vaccinated to come out and receive the doses.
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