Mama Lucy, Pumwani and Mbagathi hospitals are among 16 health facilities in Nairobi, where Covid-19 vaccination will be offered beginning next week.
Dr Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, the Health Services director of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), said on Friday that both public and private hospitals will be used.
Some of the other facilities that will be used are Kenyatta, Mathari, Armed Forces Memorial, Moi Airbase, National Spinal Injury and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral hospitals.
The private and faith-based health facilities in the list are St Francis Community, Jamaa Mission, Coptic, Nairobi, Ruaraka’s Uhai Neema, Mater and Aga Khan hospitals.
“Once Nairobi receives its share of the vaccines, we shall launch the exercise next week. The immunisation process will start with the county’s main level four hospitals,” said Dr Kibaru-Mbae.
Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) nurse Lucy Kipkemei vaccinates Dr Patrick Amoth, the acting Health Services Director-General, following the launch of the drive on March 5, 2021.
Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group
The director explained that the hospitals were chosen as they have been preparing for the vaccination drive.
“We have been making sure that fridges and other storage facilities are in place at the hospitals,” she said, adding that the Ministry of Health has already trained the staff who will be involved.
Nairobi has remained the epicentre of the coronavirus disease since the first case was confirmed on March 13, 2020.
More than 107,000 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the country so far, including at least 1,870 deaths and more than 87,000 recoveries.
Over a million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine from the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access initiative (Covax) were received at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi.
While receiving the consignment, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the inoculation will be on a priority basis and will take place in three phases.
Phase one targets the more than 400,000 health professionals countrywide as well as workers in other sectors considered as offering essential services.
A nurse prepares a Covid-19 vaccine dose for administration at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in Nairobi, following the launch of the vaccination drive on March 5, 2021.
Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group
Among the 1.25 million people who will be vaccinated for phase one vaccination are also teachers and the police.
“We need a priority list because we cannot vaccinate everybody at the same time. After the health workers are vaccinated, the process can be rolled out for the general population,” Mr Kagwe said.
The minister said the vaccines will be distributed from a central vaccine store to referral hospitals countrywide, including level three and four facilities.
The vaccination sites will include one nominated health facility per county, national referral hospitals and select private health facilities.
Phase one will run until June 30 while phase two will begin thereafter, the target being about 9.6 million Kenyans.
