Covid-19: Kenya receives 141,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Kenya has received her first consignment of 141,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine.

The consignment, which landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 8.35pm on Friday, was received by Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Mercy Mwangangi and Chairman of the Covid-19 Vaccine Development Taskforce Dr Willis Akhwale.

Dr Mwangangi said: “Kenya has purchased 13.3 million doses of J&J vaccine, we aim to have 1 million doses of the vaccine coming in every month.”

She said that the country is making progress on the overall vaccination programme.

“We would like to appeal to those who have received the first dose of AstraZeneca to go for the second dose," she said.

This follows the World Bank’s approval of $2 billion in financing to the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (Avatt) initiative that has secured up to 400 million doses of the vaccine.

There is a commitment for another 220 million doses with the option of an additional 180 million.

However, in June this year, Dr Akhwale disclosed that the government had placed an order for 10 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April but they expected to receive 13 million doses from the African Union (AU) since the price by dose had gone down.

Speaking to Nation, a high ranking member of the vaccine taskforce who sought anonymity explained that the J & J doses were fewer due to manufacturing constraints.

 “We paid for 10 million doses after which they promised 13 million because the price per vial reduced and now we are getting around 393,000 because the J & J manufacturing plant in South Africa has not yet received full WHO approval to deliver the expected amount.

Last month, South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare officially supplied the first batch of J & J vaccines to the country.