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The World Bank has advanced a Sh14 billion loan to Kenya to complement its Covid-19 vaccine efforts.
The Sh14 loan will help Kenya purchase more vaccines amid an uptake of slightly more than a million people.
This is Kenya’s second disbursement of the Covid-19 Emergency Response Project by the World Bank.
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World Bank Group
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“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 upfront financing for the acquisition of Covid-19 vaccines will enable the government to expand access to more Kenyans free of cost,” he added.
Following the onset of the epidemic, the World Bank granted Sh5.36 billion in April last year for Covid-19 tests, isolation and quarantine centers, and the purchase of personal protective equipment for health personnel.
Kenya is seeking to acquire the vaccine via the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) initiative and the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facilities.
Under the African Union facility which Kenya is yet to utilize, they have negotiated rates with manufacturers where the country can acquire the vaccines at discounted rates.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe noted that under the Covax facility, Africa had expected to acquire 75 million doses but so far only 12 million doses had been delivered.
As of today, a total of 1,334,749 vaccines have so far been administered across the country.
Of these, total first doses are 1,005,901 while second doses are 328,848.
The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 32.7% with the majority being males at 55% while females are at 45%.