Kericho County Department of Health is targeting to vaccinate at least over 500,000 adults against Covid-19 in the latest accelerated drive against the deadly Covid-19 virus.
Addressing the media following the launch of Covid- 19 vaccine and prevention exercise held at Kericho Uhuru garden, Tuesday, Kericho County Immunization Coordinator, Dr. Alfred Langat, said they were rolling out the vaccination exercise across the County and were targeting children from the ages of 12 to 18 years, as well as adults for the next ten days.
Langat lamented that that since the beginning of the inoculation exercise which commenced in March last year the County Health Department had managed to fully vaccinate a paltry 28.5 per cent of the population citing the low uptake of the vaccine to misinformation that were not factual.
“Uptake of the vaccine is very low. Some people fear injections others are shying away due to misinformation about the covid-19 vaccine that they were produced very fast, they may affect their fertility, others say if you are given the jab you will die in the next two years all which is not true,” he said.
“There is no government in this world that is very foolish enough to kill its people or to make its people to be barren. The government has goodwill for its people so that they are healthy always and go back to normalcy,” noted Langat.
He added that so far 150, 368 of the population had been fully vaccinated with 290 deaths recorded and a total of 5,600 having been hospitalized for treatment of the deadly disease.
“A total of 150,368 of the population had been vaccinated out of the targeted population of 527, 193. Those who had received their first dose of the covid-19 jab was 234, 863, those who received their second dose were 92,091 with 4,389 having received the booster vaccine. The recorded figure for those partially inoculated was 176, 568,” he added.
The County medic said the County had put in place 96 mobile outreaches set up as vaccination posts across the County in a bid to reach as many residents inoculated against corona virus adding that 181 health facilities across the County had enough supplies of Covid -19 vaccines for first, second and booster doses.
“The County has now received 38, 610 doses of the Covid-19 jab. No adverse reactions had been reported at the County Referral hospitals or at the sub-county hospitals from people who had been given the jab,” said Langat.
The medic urged all eligible persons to get vaccinated as the Covid -19 vaccinations were safe and effective as they provide crucial extra layer of protection against Covid-19 alongside other existing Ministry of Health MOH guidelines as wearing of masks, regular hand washing and physical distancing.
By Sarah Njagi
