Good news as AU begins shipment of Johnson & Johnson doses

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya is among the first African countries set to benefit from 400 million doses of Johnson and Johnson jabs from the African Union-Africa Vaccine Acquisition Trust platform.

National vaccines deployment taskforce Chair Dr Willis Akhwale receives a consignment of 180,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Greece at JKIA from Deputy Head of mission at the Greek Embassy Sotirios Demestichas on August 6, 2021.

The AU last week began shipment of the vaccines under the platform to at least 27 countries that have paid for their doses, including Kenya.

Though it is not yet clear how many doses Kenya will be getting, the first batch is expected in the country before the end of this month.

Some 6.4 million doses are to be shipped to member states before the end of the month.

The target is to deliver more than 50 million doses of J&J to at least 45 AU member states by the end of December, with the number of vaccines released per month expected to be in excess of 25 million by January.

Unicef is providing logistical and delivery services to the member states in collaboration with the Africa Medical Supplies Platform.

This comes as a boost as Kenya struggles with the impact of the fourth wave, with overstretched health facilities and workforce.

“In the next few weeks, we will be receiving more vaccines, including the ones that the government has procured. We are making preparations to receive Johnson and Johnson,” Vaccines deployment taskforce chairman Dr Willis Akhwale said.

“We are in the second phase of our vaccination programme that we began in July, we want to vaccinate as many people as possible and as quickly as possible. Our target is to vaccinate 10 million people before December,” he added.

The AU/AVAT is an initiative by the AU member states to pool their purchasing power in the acquisition of Covid-19 vaccines to help beat the global supply challenges for disadvantaged African states amid hoarding and vaccine nationalism by richer nations.

The deal was signed on March 28 with a plan to purchase 220 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson single-shot Covid-19 vaccine with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

Besides the advantage of being a single shot, the JJ vaccine was selected because it is easier and cheaper to administer, has a long shelf-life and favourable storage conditions, and is partly manufactured on the African continent, with fill-finish activities taking place in South Africa.

“This is a momentous step forward in Africa’s efforts to safeguard the health and well-being of its people,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the AU chairman, said during the official start of the shipments.

“By working together and by pooling resources, African countries have been able to secure millions of vaccine doses produced right here in Africa. This will provide impetus to the fight against Covid-19 across the continent and will lay the basis for Africa’s social and economic recovery.”

As of Saturday, 1,800,174 vaccines had been administered across the country.

Of these, 697,942 are second doses while 1,102,232 are first doses.

The proportion of Kenyan adults who are fully vaccinated now stands at 2.6 per cent, with the majority being male at 55 per cent.

In terms of full vaccination per priority groups, 120,061 are health workers, 101,875 are teachers, 56,123 are security officers, 214,473 are people aged 58 and above, while 205,410 are uncategorised.

To date, Kenya has received 2,323,100 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, with the latest consignment of 180,000 doses which was a donation from the Greek government having been received in the country on Friday.

The rollout of the national vaccination campaign is being led by the Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, Unicef, Gavi and other partners.

Kenya is currently prioritising second doses for health workers, teachers, other essential workers and people aged over 58.