Meru County Chief Public Health Officer Dr. John Inanga has warned the public against failing to take the Covid 19 jab despite the government’s efforts to get the whole population vaccinated.
Speaking to the media in his office, Dr. Inanga said that the vaccination process had seen a total of 404, 035 people getting the first-time jab, 162,072 receiving the second dose and 80,234 people have received booster shots, taking the total number of people in Meru County who have been vaccinated to over a million.
He however said that despite the gains made, Meru County would not relent in its quest to reach 70 per cent of the entire Meru population getting vaccinated, saying that this was the only way to ensure the rest of the population attained hard immunity against the few members of the public who would have not been vaccinated.
“We are aiming to at least reach a target of 70 per cent for a hard immunity for our population,” said Dr. Inanga.
According to the public health officer, the covid-19 vaccination jabs have been a game-changer on the fight of the pandemic stating that Meru County positivity rate stood at one per cent.
He also assured the public, especially those who were yet to be vaccinated, due to the fears of the covid-19 vaccination jabs, saying that all the vaccines were safe and at no point was their intention to harm the public through the jabs.
Initially, there had been unconfirmed reports about the side-effects of vaccination jabs with some sections of the population holding the belief that the jab may cause a man to be impotent, infertility in women and premature death after two years of getting vaccination among others.
He termed these myths as false information that was meant to confuse the public and mislead them towards refusing and accepting the vaccines.
“People should get informed and stop being misled. Myths like if you get vaccinated you will become impotent or die in two years’ time are just misinformation to confuse the public not to adhere to government directives,” said Dr. Inanga.
He also reiterated that all the vaccines were being manufactured for different parts of the world, and the government was just doing procurement for its own citizens and therefore, at no point were the vaccines being manufactured for one specific region or country with a target of eliminating the population.
“The vaccines are being made for different countries and I don’t think anybody has the intention of marking harmful vaccines just for one particular region,” cautioned Dr. Inanga
He also underscored the vital role covid-19 vaccines continue to play in reducing the severity of the infections, saying that during the period of the vaccination there have been minimal hospital admissions of covid-19 related patients.
By Brenda Gakii
