By John
Muchangi, NAIROBI Kenya
Kenya has
ordered 24 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, enough to cover 20 per cent of
the country’s population, the Star
has learnt.
The Ministry of Health submitted its request
to the global vaccine alliance Gavi last week.
The doses will cost Kenya a total of Sh10
billion, the ministry confirmed.
This is approximately the cost also given by
Gavi, which says each dose will cost about $3 (about Sh320).
The amount is already heavily discounted by
Gavi through donations from a number of developed countries, the World Bank,
and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
“The first to be vaccinated will be frontline
workers, then the vulnerable and the elderly,” acting director-general of
Health Patrick Amoth told the Star.
He said Kenya did not dictate which vaccine
to receive because Gavi has signed agreements with manufacturers of about nine
vaccine candidates.
“The Oxford University-Astrazeneca candidate
will be ideal for Kenya because it fits within our cold chain supply system. It
can be stored in 2-8 degrees and we have refrigerators for that,” Amoth said.
"It is also being tested in the country in Kilifi."
Pfizer- BioNTech’s, Moderna’s and Russia’s
Sputnik V vaccines have all reported efficacy of more than 90 per cent.
However, the first two require ultra-cold
storage not widely available in Kenya.
The Pfizer candidate is also not among the
contracted vaccines that will be supplied to poor countries through Gavi.
Kenya expects to receive a vaccine early next
year, but Amoth did not specify the timeframe.
He said Kenya will grant emergency use
approval to the appropriate candidate immediately that vaccine gets such
approvals in Europe and the US.
“Once they get the approval from the European
Medicines Agency and in the UK, then we will also consider granting such
authorisation in Kenya,” he said.
The announcement means Kenya has applied for
the largest number of doses in East Africa.
Last week on Thursday, Uganda’s Ministry of
Health said it ordered nine million doses to cover 20 per cent of the country’s
population of 43 million people.
“Plans are underway to secure additional
doses of the vaccine to cover more people,” the Ugandan Health ministry said in
a statement.
Uganda said it specifically applied for the
Oxford University-Astrazeneca vaccine because it has no capacity to store other
vaccines that require ultra-cold conditions.
Rwanda's Minister of Health Daniel Ngamije on
Sunday also announced they had applied for either AstraZeneca or the Moderna
vaccine.
Ngamije didn't, however, say how many doses
they applied for but said they hoped Rwanda would be among the first countries
in Africa to receive them.
It is not known if Tanzania, which claims
there is no Covid-19 there, applied for any vaccine.
Separately, Egypt announced it applied for 20
million doses from Gavi, and expected to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In Egypt, priority will be given to medical
staff, followed by those with chronic diseases, Health
minister Hala Zayed said,
Egypt has also received its first batch of
coronavirus vaccine, produced by the Chinese company Sinopharma.
Gavi is supplying Covid-19 vaccines to 92
developing countries, including Kenya, through a facility called Covax.
Covax was created by Gavi, Unicef and the WHO
to deliver two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
The facility says it has already secured
millions of ready-made doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, ready for
distribution to the 92 developing countries.
The Geneva-based Gavi had given beneficiary
countries up to December 7 to make their requests.
Experts say although there won’t be enough
vaccines for every Kenyan, getting the shots to the right people could tame the
pandemic.
Although Covax has signed agreements for nine
different candidates, the Oxford candidate might reach developing countries
first because it can utilise existing infrastructure in most countries.
The Oxford vaccine can utilise standard 2-8
degree cold chain infrastructure for transport, storage and delivery.
Gavi says it has already secured “hundreds of
millions of doses” of the candidate through an MoU between Gavi and
AstraZeneca, as well as through agreements between Gavi, the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation and the Serum Institute of India, the contracted manufacturer.
"Access to safe and efficacious Covid-19
vaccines for the most vulnerable groups everywhere in the world is the only way
to bring the acute stage of this pandemic under control,” Gavi CEO Dr Seth
Berkley said in a recent statement.
The Oxford vaccine — being tested in Kilifi
in a phase I trial — uses a harmless, weakened version of a common virus that
causes a cold in chimpanzees.
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s
largest vaccine manufacturer, said it has already manufactured millions of
doses and will make millions more immediately governments authorise its use.
Kenya has formed a Covid-19 Vaccine
Taskforce, which will develop policies and guidelines on how the vaccines will
be rolled out once available.
“These are processes that are currently
underway. We are quite excited and we are going to have a discussion with
AstraZeneca to ensure that Kenya is first in line because about eight countries
are on trial for the vaccine,” Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi said recently.
In September, the WHO Strategic Advisory
Group of Experts on Immunisation endorsed new guidelines on groups to
prioritise for vaccination while supply is limited.
The framework advises countries to prioritise
health workers who are directly engaged in the Covid-19 response.
The framework also leaves countries to make
their own decisions depending on the type of vaccines that are available and
what countries intend to achieve.
“Health is not, however, the only dimension
of wellbeing that has been severely affected by the pandemic,” the guidelines
say.
This means the choice for Kenya might also
depend on whether the highest priority for the country is just to prevent death
or to curb the spread of the virus and return to normalcy. – The Star
