Kenya develops Covid-19 digital immunisation system 

The Ministry of Health (MoH) is set to unveil a new digital immunisation records platform that will be used for Covid-19 vaccination. 

According to the Covid-19 vaccine advisory taskforce chair Dr Willis Akhwale, the platform has been designed by the ministry of information, communications and technology (ICT) and is solely owned by the government.

“We are still deliberating on what to call it, it’s 100 percent developed by the government with inputs and specifications from my taskforce,” Dr Akhwale told Nation in an exclusive interview on Thursday. 

The system will have the capability to do pre-registration. Meaning that people will be registered to it after which it sends the user details and then sets a reminder as to when one should go get the Covid-19 vaccine dose. 

During the vaccination, all the records will be captured within the system.

“After the first dose, the system will schedule you for your next dose and facility where you are supposed to go then again set a reminder,” the taskforce chair explained. 

Cost of building new system

The system will use any official identifiable number like the national identification number (ID) and the passport number.

“When Huduma Namba comes it will also be considered but the main goal is to have a dependable, mobile friendly and super-efficient system that will not only capture data both offline and online but also support deployment of the vaccine throughout the country,” Dr Akhwale assured. 

On Thursday afternoon, the demo was presented to the taskforce which according to the chair expects to start training those who will be handling it next week. 

Mr Akhwale declined to comment on how much the government had spent to build the new digital records system.

“The only thing remaining is the template the system will use to generate a certificate but that is being sorted then it should be ready in one or two weeks,” Mr Akhwale said. 

When asked whether there should be any data security concerns, the chair said that the ICT ministry is working to address any issues and advice accordingly once the platform is rolled out.  

The taskforce is currently working to finalise a solid vaccine plan that he says is almost ready.

Delivery of vaccine doses

Earlier this month Nation revealed that Kenya was projected to receive 4,176,000 doses of Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine from GAVI-Covax according to an official interim distribution forecast.

The forecast outlines projected delivery of vaccine doses to all facility participants, with the exception of participants who have either exercised their rights to opt-out, have not submitted vaccine requests, or have not yet been allocated doses.

It provides information on early projected availability of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Q1 2021 and the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine candidate in first half 2021 to COVAX facility participants.

“The purpose of sharing the interim distribution with countries, even in today’s highly dynamic global supply environment, is to provide governments and health systems with the information they need to plan for their national vaccination programmes.

Final allocations will be published in due course,” GAVi said in a statement on its official website.

“We are waiting for COVAX to communicate and let us know when to expect the vaccines and the exact number of doses they will send over in the first batch, “Dr Akhwale highlighted.