Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe came face-to-face with the realities of most health facilities in Trans Nzoia County having run out of Covid-19 vaccine.

While on a tour of health facilities last week, the CS learnt that they had completely run out of vaccines despite rising demand.

Kagwe was expected to address some elderly persons on the need to get vaccinated only to be told that there was not a single dose for demonstration at the Trans Nzoia County Teaching and Referral Hospital.

“I really wanted to demonstrate how we can administer the vaccine, however, I am sorry there is not a single dose here,” said the nurse to the disappointment of the elderly people, who had queued for hours hoping to be vaccinated.

“There has been low vaccination rate among the elderly. However, we have scaled up strategies to reach them through pre-registration,” the nurse who sought anonymity added.

However, Kagwe put on a brave face saying despite the shortages, the government had procured more vaccines that should be available to all health facilities in the course of this week.

He specifically said the country is set to feel the impact of 13 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines expected to be delivered in the next couple of days. 

“The ministry undertakes to take a number of steps to mitigate the supply challenges.

The national government is going to work directly with the county to provide guidance about targeting vaccines in response to the supplies,” the CS said.

In the latest update on the national vaccination statistics for  the second dose uptake, report released last week, Trans Nzoia was ranked position  42 out of 47 as at August 24.

Report shows that 13,498 residents have so far received their second dose of  AstraZeneca against a target population of 518,077 of people above 18 years.  

Moderna consignment

During the tour, the CS also visited Cherangany, Endebess, Kwanza, Saboti, Tom Mboya, Mount Elgon and the Kitale County Hospital.

He directed the National Taskforce on Vaccine Deployment headed by Dr Willis Akhwale to immediately act on the shortage  issue.

Yesterday, Dr Akhwale called on the Trans Nzoia County Government to pick their doses from Eldoret, today where part of the recent 880, 460 Moderna vaccine consignment has been distributed.