Kenya not among Africa countries lined up for UN-backed drugs supply
George Kebaso @Morarak
Kenya will have to wait a little longer for the much-needed Covid-19 vaccine after it emerged that Rwanda, South Africa, Cape Verde and Tunisia are in the lead to receive the jabs through the UN-backed programme by the end of this month.
Kenyans have been hopeful the vaccines were going to land anytime this month but now it seems this will take a while.
Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO), said the first batch of the vaccinations will go to those four countries first before the rest of the continent receives theirs.
“In the next few days after finalising the regulatory processes required to be in place to facilitate the delivery of the vaccine, Rwanda, South Africa, Cape Verde and Tunisia will be privileged to be the first countries to start inoculating their populations,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa said during a virtual press conference with Africa-based journalists.
She however, announced that the other countries are also going to receive their consignments towards the next few weeks, since they already have an indicative signal for the delivery.
Global competition
“It is a global solidarity work in progress as we are still doing advocacy for donations, for countries that have secured more vaccines to donate to those that are not capable of procuring the vaccine on their own. We will see the volumes of vaccines as they become available so that they can be shared fairly and equitably.
“It is a matter of days for the vaccine to land in the countries to cover the vulnerable groups,” she said.
Moeti said it is taking a lot of effort to obtain the vaccine supplies with the reality that there is a global competition, as every government in the world is trying to obtain it for their populations.
