Kenya Faces Vaccination Crisis as 18 Die of Covid-19

The total number of positive Covid-19 cases now stand at 152,523, while the cumulative tests conducted so far are 1,611,679.

Of the cases announced today, 612 are Kenyans while 17 are foreigners, while 358 are male and 271 are female. The youngest is a one-year- old infant while the oldest is 92 years old.

Regrettably, 18 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. Two occurred in the last 24 hours, eight on diverse dates within the last one month while 8 are late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits. This pushes the cumulative fatalities to 2,519.

At the same time, 1,560 patients have recovered from the disease, 1,358 from the Home-Based and Isolation Care, while 202 are from various health facilities. The total number of recoveries now stand at 103,838.

Currently, a total of 1,527 patients are admitted to various health facilities countrywide, while 6,751 patients are on Home Based Isolation and Care.

251 patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 54 of whom are on ventilatory support and 155 on supplemental oxygen. 42 patients are on observation.

Another 192 patients are separately on supplementary oxygen with 177 of them in the general wards and 15 in the High Dependency Unit (HDU).

The Ministry of Health has now confirmed that Kenya will buy doses of the Pfizer as well Johnson & Johnson vaccines after India banned exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Kenya had ordered 24 million doses after receiving its first batch of 1.02 million doses in February, but India went back on her word and banned further exports so as to cater for the increased local demand.

Head of the Covid-19 vaccines rollout taskforce Willis Akhwale stated that the country is in advanced stages of negotiations to buy the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines through the Africa CDC platform and negotiating directly with manufacturers.

Akhwale also added that the vaccination schedule has been revised to facilitate vaccination of 25 million adults by June 2022 compared to the previous 16 million schedule.