Kenya administers over 30,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines

NAIROBI, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Some 30,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses have been administered in Kenya out of the 200,000 the east African nation received from the Chinese government, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Willis Akhwale, the Chairman of the National Taskforce on Covid-19 Deployment and Vaccination on COVID-19 Deployment, said the vaccines have mainly been administered on demand due to challenges in storage.

"We are in discussion with the Chinese government to expand the cold chain facilities before we bring in more doses from the country. The vaccines need a little bigger storage space as compared to others thus it becomes a challenge if they are to be distributed at dispensaries that have smaller fridges," he said.

Akhwale said Kenya is expected to start full COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing by 2024.

"Our roadmap is on course. We have already formed the Kenya Biovax Limited company through which we will manufacture the vaccine," he said in Nairobi.

He noted that the government would forge strategic partnerships with other nations for technology transfer, access to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and the right equipment.

Kenya had administered 5.7 million vaccines as of Tuesday, of which 3.8 million people were partially vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health. The east African nation's total confirmed positive cases stood at 253,853 on Wednesday, Ministry of Health.