Where to receive your Covid-19 vaccine in Nairobi
Mama Lucy, Pumwani, and Mbagathi Hospitals are among 16 public and private health facilities in Nairobi which have been earmarked to offer Covid-19 vaccination.
This as the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) prepares to commence the vaccination exercise next week.
NMS Health Services Director Josephine Kibaru-Mbae said the vaccination will take place in both public and private health facilities.
Others are Kenyatta National Hospital, Mathari Hospital, Memorial Hospital, Moi Airbase Hospital, National Spinal Injury Hospital, and Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Some of the private and faith-based health facilities selected for this task include St. Francis Community Hospital, Jamaa Mission Hospital, Coptic Hospital, Nairobi Hospital, Ruaraka Uhai Neema Hospital, Mater Hospital, and Aga Khan Hospital.
“Once Nairobi receives its share of the vaccine, we shall do the launching next week. The immunization process will start with the county’s main Level Four hospitals,” said Kibaru-Mbae.
The director explained the targeted hospitals are ready to receive the vaccines.
“We have been making sure the fridges and storage facilities for the vaccines are well in place at the hospitals in order to receive the vaccines,” she said, adding that staff at the health facilities conducting the immunization has already been trained by the Ministry of Health.
Nairobi has remained the epicentre of the coronavirus disease since the first positive case was reported in the country on March 13, 2020.
More than 107,000 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the country so far with at least 1,870 deaths already reported.
Kenya received its first consignment of vaccines on Tuesday when 1.02 million doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine from Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access initiative (Covax) arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). The doses are part of an initial allocation of 3.56 million shots.
While receiving the consignment, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the vaccination roll-out plan will be on a priority basis, and in three phases.
In phase one, he said they are targeting more than 400,000 health workers countrywide as well as workers in other essential services with the targeted population to be covered in this first phase remains 1.25million who will also include teachers and the police.
He further said the vaccines will be distributed to referral hospitals countrywide including level fours and threes from a central vaccine store with the first vaccination sites to be one nominated vaccinating health facility per county, the national referral hospitals, and select private health facilities.
“We need a priority list because we cannot vaccinate everybody at the same time. After the health workers are vaccinated the process can be rolled out to the general population,” he said.
Phase 1 will run until June 30 giving way for Phase 2 which will commence thereafter targeting about 9.6 million Kenyans. The next batch of vaccines is, however, expected in the country by the end of March or April.