World Bank gives Kenya Sh14b for Covid-19 jabs
By George Kebaso, June 30, 2021George Kebaso @Morarak
The World Bank has approved US$130 million (Sh14 billion) additional financing for the Kenya Covid-19 Health Emergency Response Project for the purchase of vaccines.
The new allocation brings World Bank’s contribution to Kenya’s Covid-19 response to US$246 million (Sh24.6 billion).
They include the Sh1billion triggered under the Contingency Emergency Response Component of the Transforming Health Systems for Universal Care Project.
The money will be used for vaccine safety surveillance, training of health workers and advocacy and communication activities to encourage the Covid-19 vaccine uptake.
By yesterday, only 1.3 million people had been vaccinated against Covid-19, against the 16 million targeted for immunisation by June 2022.
“This additional financing would enable Kenya to procure more vaccines via the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) initiative and the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facilities,” the statement said.
Storage capacity
The amount would also support the deployment of those vaccines by boosting Kenya’s cold chain storage capacity.
According to the World Bank, the money will also be used to establish 25 county vaccine stores, strengthen the capacity of 36 sub-county stores, and equip 1,177 health facilities with storage equipment.
“This additional financing comes at a critical time when the Government of Kenya is making concerted efforts to contain the rising cases of Covid-19 infections and accelerate the deployment of vaccines to a wider population,” said Keith Hansen, World Bank Country Director for Kenya.
The announcement comes even as the country’s total confirmed positive Covid-19 cases hit 183,603 yesterday after 719 new infections were recorded.
The new cases tested from a sample size of 7,608 have a positivity rate of 9.5 per cent and push the total of cumulative tests conducted so far to 1,953,344.