Browsing: COVID-19 vaccines

• Moderna has announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Kenya
• The firm’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said the ‘mRNA’ facility would produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines each year
• Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Kenya and the company to establish the first mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa

American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna has announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Kenya.

On Monday, March 7, 2022, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Kenya and the company to establish the first mRNA manufacturing facility in Africa.

The firm’s CEO, Stéphane Bancel, said the ‘mRNA’ facility would produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines each year.

The company said it would invest up to $500 million in the new facility, which will focus on drug substance manufacturing on the continent of Africa …

• Doses delivered to G20 countries per capita are 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to sub-Saharan African countries
• Wealthy countries with more supplies than they need have generously pledged to donate these doses to low- and middle-income countries via COVAX but these promised doses are moving too slowly

G20 countries have received 15 times more COVID-19 vaccine doses per capita than countries in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new analysis.

The analysis, conducted by science analytics company Airfinity, exposes the severity of vaccine inequity between high-income and low-income countries, especially in Africa.

It found that doses delivered to G20 countries per capita are 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to sub-Saharan African countries, 15 times higher than doses delivered per capita to low-income countries and 3 times higher than doses delivered per capita in all other countries combined.

“Vaccine inequity is not just holding the poorest …

Kenya received a further 180,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday, even as the number of those who have been vaccinated surpass 1.7 million.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health says the addition will serve as a boost to the ongoing vaccination efforts amid increased Covid-19 cases across the country.

So far, a total of 209, 823 cases have been reported Kenya.

The latest consignment, which was a donation from the Greek government, pushes the number of vaccines received in the country to 2,323,100.

Speaking at JKIA after receiving the consignment, National Taskforce on Vaccine Deployment Chair Dr. Willis Akhwale said the donation was a welcome boost to the ongoing vaccination exercise.

Akhwale said the government expects to have vaccinated 10 million people by the end of this year.

At the same time, Deputy Head of mission at the Embassy of Greece in Kenya Counsellor Sotirios Demestichas, said the …

Kenya has received a coronavirus vaccine donation from the United kingdom, following the meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this week.

The East African nation received 410, 000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Saturday, as part of the 817, 000 doses that Kenyatta secured during his three-day visit of London earlier this week.

The remaining doses which were donated through the COVAX facility is expected to arrive in the country in the coming days ahead.

The arrival of the vaccines come days after President Uhuru Kenyatta urged the global community to heighten efforts in promoting equity in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Speaking to Sky News in London, President Kenyatta underscored that the world can only be save if everybody gets to be vaccinated against the virus.

He noted that Kenya is ready to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccines but regretted that the only …