Ministry of Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe has said that they have now opened up the Covid-19 vaccination to all persons above 18 years since there are sufficient doses in the country.
Kagwe said that National Government Administration Officers across the country should participate in social mobilization of people both in the urban and rural areas for them to turn out for vaccination.
“I am appealing to all eligible persons above 18 years of age in the country to turn out at our vaccination sites and get vaccinated. Vaccination remains one of the surest ways to protect our loved ones from this deadly virus which as you all know has caused untold suffering amongst many of our people,” said Kagwe.
The CS said that they had set out a weekday target of 80,000 people to have been vaccinated by the by end of September and 150,000 by December but the weekday daily average is however at between 60,000 to 70,000 people.
“Whereas this is not yet where we would like it to be, I am glad to note that on weekends when most facilities are closed, the daily average has increased from 3,000 to 15,000. This weekend improvement is attributable to public outreaches that are being carried out,” said Kagwe.
Kagwe appealed to political leaders to ask their supporters who attend their rallies who are mainly the youth to ensure they are vaccinated.
“Businesses and premises operating in areas prone to crowds like hotels, bars, lodgings, sporting activities as well as places of worship should consider the requirement of a vaccination certificate for entry into their premises in keeping with global practice,” posed Kagwe.
He added that the vaccination campaign against the Covid-19 disease has been progressing on well and they are still on course towards achieving the target of vaccinating 10 million people by end of December this year.
“The current position as to what the Ministry of Health is doing includes provision of 4,000 tablets to operationalize 4,000 vaccination posts, availability of financial resources to counties to support outreaches and increased availability of vaccine doses in the country,” said the CS.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
