The Kenyan health ministry on Wednesday announced nearly 840,000 vaccines against Covid-19 have expired in the country before they could be administered to the public, blaming hesitancy among people and short shelf life for the vaccine doses remaining unused, reported Africa News.
In a statement, the health ministry said AstraZeneca vaccine doses were donated to Kenya through the global Covax initiative in January and had been distributed across the country.
“Any expired dose represents a missed opportunity to save a life,” the Kenyan ministry said.
About 30 percent of the target population in Kenya has been vaccinated against the coronavirus so far. The vaccine uptake has slowed considerably in recent weeks as the prevalence of the disease has decreased.
Mutahi Kagwe, the cabinet secretary for the Ministry of Health, said that the daily vaccination rate has plunged from 252,000 recorded in early February to 30,000-40,000 daily.
He said uptake of the second jab had dropped sharply as Kenyans were refusing certain vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca.
“We continue to witness vaccine hesitancy attributed to rumors and misinformation, especially around fertility concerns,” the Kenyan minister said.
The ministry noted the expired vaccines had arrived in January with an expiry date of February 28, leaving little time to reach the masses. It said that Kenya will now only accept donations of vaccines whose shelf-life is at least four months at the time of delivery.
Kenya has received more than 27 million Covid-19 vaccines but only administered around 17.3 million shots. The ministry said it had enough vaccines in-store and urged more Kenyans to get the jab to avoid further expirations.
The Kenyan government aims to double vaccinate 27 million Kenyans by the end of 2022. So far it has achieved nearly eight million.
Earlier this month, the government announced an easing of certain Covid-19 measures, including an end to mandatory mask-wearing in public.
