It has not yet been announced when Kenya will roll out the Covid-19 vaccine.

Kenya has not yet committed to procuring or obtaining the Covid-19 vaccine.

The country is not among the 34, but mostly wealthy, with nearly 10 billion vaccines purchased or booked by yesterday and will be available in the next two years.

In Africa, only Egypt has confirmed 55 million bookings, according to Duke University’s online vaccine procurement tracker.

On Thursday, Health Director Rashid Aman said he was closely monitoring the global progress of vaccine development and would be involved at the right time.

“The question is whether we have access to the front runner vaccine. We are working hard to figure out how to get the vaccine,” said Dr. Aman.

He also confirmed that there was no involvement with China or Russia in obtaining the vaccine, which he said was still in final clinical trials. “But after undergoing the necessary scientific and regulatory procedures, any vaccine that exhibits acceptable efficacy and safety is acceptable.”

February vaccine

Aman was answering media questions during the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Briefing following the next report Kenya may be vaccinated by February.

He said there were negotiations to access the Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine. “When approved, we are already somehow discussing the availability of this vaccine.”

Of the front-runner vaccines, this is the only vaccine tested in Africa and is currently being tested in South Africa and Kilifi under the Kenyan Institute of Medicine (Kemuri).

Aman, a member of the Kilifi research team, said he wanted to know how Africans respond to vaccines. “If found to provoke a safe and effective defensive immune response, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 will be further developed for use in controlling Covid-19, including populations in other countries in Kenya and Africa.” Said the research protocol.

However, while the Oxford vaccine is in final Phase III clinical trials in other countries, Kenya has been nearly five months behind the start of Phase I trials in October.

Oxford applied for the start of the study in April at the same time as the other participating countries, but approval was delayed due to ongoing trials in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa.

A local daily newspaper, which was granted access to the Kilifi trial site last weekend, spoke of delays from government agencies.

For example, Kemli publicly announced that it would recruit participants two months ago, but regulator Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) has indicated that recruitment has not started.

PPB also suspended the test after the test started. When I inquired on October 6, it was an error, and the suspension was immediately lifted.

However, there was no explanation from both sides about the treatment of exercise that is so important to Kenyan life.

Last week, the WHO Africa Regional Office complained about how countries in the region are preparing for vaccination.

A vaccine readiness assessment by the WHO Secretariat showed that vaccines were not ready to be deployed when all 47 countries became available.

Authorities said the readiness level was around 33%, well below the desired benchmark of 80%.

“The biggest immunization impetus in African history is just around the corner, and the African government must urgently step up its readiness,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director of Africa.

Two senior officials in Nairobi and Machakos counties who demanded anonymity said they were unaware of the Covid-19 vaccination program. “You are telling us,” said a Machakos nurse.

Kenya is also lagging behind in financial mobilization, vaccine regulation, service delivery, training and supervision, vaccine logistics and raising public awareness.

So far, no official government statement has been published regarding modality when vaccine deployments become available.

Kenya, along with other poor countries, hopes to access vaccines that have not yet been identified. A WHO facility called COVAX.

Through this arrangement, WHO will secure vaccines for approximately 20 percent of the needs of each participating country. However, each country must bear the cost of its own internal logistics and part of the delivery at about Sh221 per dose.

Kenya could initially target 40,000 front-line healthcare professionals in both private and public health facilities.

Next, there could be about 2 million citizens over the age of 60. This is the group that has proven to be the most vulnerable to coronavirus disease.

Rich country

Experts say that ideally everyone should be vaccinated. This explains why developed countries have already booked almost all vaccine doses expected on the market by 2022.

“Our data show that nearly 10 billion doses are booked, most of which are purchased by high-income countries,” said Andrea Tyler of Duke University, one of the poorest countries. People in the department added that they would not be immunized until 2023.

However, the Oxford Consortium has promised about 300 million doses to the COVAX facility. The Kenyan government has not yet announced an agreement with Oxford, allowing it to conduct clinical trials with Kenyans in possible interests.

For example, Peru allows Shinofarm in China and Johnson & Johnson in the United States to conduct vaccine trials domestically, provided that the host country has preferential access to the final product.

Since last week, the technical team under the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus has gone too far as the reality of working on vaccines has finally returned home.

Recent confirmation of several effective vaccines in the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Russia, and urgent approval in the United Kingdom have ordered the Task Force to consider regulatory, sourcing, and distribution modality.

“It’s a monumental activity with some teams working all day to keep Kenya from missing the earliest vaccines on the market,” said a member of the Scientific Committee.

He said Kenya is working on three approaches: preparing a UN-led COVAX facility, buying it directly, and paying attention to donations from development partners.

“The technical team is working hard to ensure that the policy framework, regulation and distribution methods are in place,” said Peter Okoto, Senior Program Officer at UNICEF-Nairobi.

Dr. Okoto refused to speculate when Kenya would be vaccinated, but guaranteed that the country would not be left behind. “In my personal opinion, this could happen in the first quarter of 2021, but we still have to do a lot of work.”