Covid vaccine arrives in Nyanza

Nyanza region on Thursday received a major boost in the fight against Covid-19 after a consignment of 54,000 coronavirus doses arrived in the country.

The much awaited AstraZeneca vaccine arrived at the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency warehouses in Kisumu at 10.40 pm on Thursday night.

This was a few hours after President Uhuru Kenyatta flagged off the consignment at the central depot in Kitengela, Kajiado.

The vaccines were destined for Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Kakamega and Kisumu counties.

The staff at Kemsa in Kisumu had everything ready hours before the truck carrying the vaccines entered the warehouse.

Mr Dennis Otieno, the warehouse manager at Kemsa, told the Nation that turnover time from the moment the boxes are opened to when they are preserved must be as short as possible. They workers did it in under 10 minutes.

"Temperature control is very key during the offloading process and that is why we have been very careful. The trucks had temperature monitors and that is why we have received them within the right temperature range," said Mr Otieno.

The distribution of the doses will start on Friday morning to the six counties in Nyanza Kisumu, Siaya, Migori, Homa Bay, Kisii and Nyamira.

For the first batch, Kisumu will get 15,000 doses, Homa Bay (9,000), Kisii (9,000), Migori (9,000), Nyamira (6,000) and Siaya (6,000).

"In the first phase of distribution, the counties will receive half of the doses allocated to them and the rest later," said Mr Otieno.

The vaccines will be available in county referral hospitals.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was shipped to Kenya from the Serum Institute of India (SII).

According to Health director-general Patrick Amoth, the government plans to vaccinate 1.25 million Kenyans by June.