Pfizer vaccines donated by the United States of America (USA) have been deployed straight away to 9 regional centers due to stringent storage requirements.
Speaking in Nairobi while receiving the vaccines, Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said the vaccines will only be availed to accredited facilities capable of exhausting 500 doses a week.
Mochache said the nine regional stores were already equipped with the ultra-chain cold storage freezers.
“From the regional store these vaccines will be transported to selected vaccination posts which have that capacity to keep them at a temperature of between 2-8 degrees which is generally common with all other vaccines,” she said.
The Health PS added that the once the Pfizer vaccine containers are opened, they cannot be refrozen or restored adding that vaccines must be consumed within 28 days.
She added that in a bid to ensure the safety of the vaccines, the health ministry had partnered with the county governments to train over 3,000 health workers who will be involved in the vaccination exercise and posted in designated vaccine centers in the country.
“Following these trainings, it has also helped us to accelerate our daily uptake of the vaccinations,” she said.
PS Mochache said that Kenya could not receive the vaccines earlier since the country lacked the necessary infrastructure for storage of the vaccines only survive at extremely low temperatures of -70 degrees.
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