Kenya w*rned over its unambitious Covid vaccination plan
Kenya’s unambitious vaccination programme will weaken the country’s economic recovery, a global financial information services has said. According to Fitch Solutions, part of the Fitch Group this lack of drive will weaken the recovery of domestic demand, compounding the negative impact of renewed fiscal consolidation efforts.
“We forecast that real GDP growth will rise from an estimated 0.1 per cent in 2020 to 4.4 per cent in 2021 and 5.2 per cent in 2022, below the country’s 2010-19 average of 5.8 per cent,” Fitch said in a statement.
The government received the first consignment of 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca shot on March 3, out of a total order of 24 million doses.
The country’s vaccination programme aims to cover 1.3 million people by June 2021, 11 million by June 2022 which is around 20.9 per cent of the population, with a final target of 15.9 million (30.2 per cent of the population) until more resources are available for additional vaccine orders.
Poor logistics, weak state control over some areas, and public resistance to vaccinations will also threaten vaccine distribution in the sub-region, according to the Fitch Solution’s country risk analysis.
In Kenya, for instance, there has been high levels of scepticism over safety of the vaccines.
The government has already extended nightly curfew, as well as banned public rallies.
Operating times for businesses, first introduced in November 2020 until May are likely to remain in place this year.
