Nairobi Metropolitan Services director of Health services Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae has listed 16 hospitals in Nairobi where citizens can get Covid-19 vaccination. This comes hours after the Acting Health director-general Dr. Patrick Omoth was vaccinated today at Kenyatta National Hospital becoming the first person in Kenya to get it.
Kibaru said that both private and public hospitals will be used in the vaccination programme when it starts next week. The criteria used to list the facilities was based on the preparation level.
“We have been making sure that fridges and other storage facilities are in place at the hospitals,” she said, adding that the Ministry of Health has already trained the staff who will be involved.
The first phase of the vaccination is expected to reach over 500,000 health workers and other frontline workers providing essential services.
The public hospitals include Mama Lucy, Pumwani and Mbagathi hospitals.
Kenyatta, Mathari, Armed Forces Memorial, Moi Airbase, National Spinal Injury, and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral hospitals have also been earmarked for the vaccination
The private and faith-based health facilities are St Francis Community, Jamaa Mission, Coptic, Nairobi, Ruaraka’s Uhai Neema, Mater, and Aga Khan hospitals.
“Once Nairobi receives its share of the vaccines, we shall launch the exercise next week. The immunization process will start with the county’s main level four hospitals,” she added.
The only people exempted in the vaccine administration are minors, pregnant women and people allergic to eggs and chicken.
The second phase is expected to run from July 2021 to June 2022 targetting a population of 9.7 million Kenyans, especially persons above 50 years of age and those above 18 years of age with underlying health conditions.
Speaking on March 2 when the vaccines landed in Kenya, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe urged Kenyans not to drop guard despite the arrival of the vaccine. He said that the fight against the virus is not over yet.
