• Facilities with minus 70 are available in Kemri and a few other facilities but they are already full of other biologicals. We do not want to contaminate vaccines with those biologicals
• An appropriate medical-grade freezer costs about Sh1.6 million, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Ministry of Health has requested Sh1.4 billion from the Treasury to expand vaccine storage facilities throughout the country and buy freezers that can store jabs at -70°C.
Head of the Covid-19 vaccine deployment task force Willis Akhwale said available facilities can achieve -20 degrees Celsius and store up to 20 million vials.
“Facilities with -70 are available in Kemri and a few other facilities but they are already holding other biologicals. We do not want to contaminate vaccines with those biologicals,” he said. Biologicals are products made from or containing components of living organisms.
“We are also cautious not to interrupt the routine immunisation even as we deploy the vaccines,” he said.
Dr Akhwale was addressing a virtual meeting organised by a doctors' lobby — the Kenya Medical Association.
Nearly all vaccines demand strict temperature controls. The World Health Organization says about half of the vaccines distributed around the world go to waste, mostly because of failure to properly control storage temperatures.
Some Covid-19 vaccines that use strands of genetic material known as mRNA need to be kept at ultracold temperatures, such as -70 for Pfizer and -20 for Moderna, to remain stable.
The two have the highest efficacy of any WHO-authorised vaccines, at 95 per cent.
Last week, Pfizer presented new data showing its vaccine no longer needs ultra-cold storage and can be stored at -25°C to -15°C for a total of two weeks.
Akhwale said although Kenya has ordered the AstraZeneca-Oxford jab, it can still buy the Pfizer vaccine once it becomes available and storage is available.
“We are not stuck to AstraZeneca. The government has given us leeway to decide which vaccine we can buy,” he said.
This means the country would need to invest in new infrastructure, comprising items such as freezers, refrigerated shipping containers, and remote temperature monitoring systems.
An appropriate medical-grade freezer costs about Sh1.6 million, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ministry says these cannot be cannibalised from the existing vaccine supply chain because it could disrupt the routine immunisation for diseases such as measles, polio, and diarrhoea.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe says the vaccine will be deployed two weeks after its arrival to Kenya anytime this week.
However, this is highly unlikely as medics have not even been trained in administering the Covid-19 vaccine to date.
On the WHO’s Vaccine Introduction Readiness Assessment Tool, Kenya records an average score of 33 per cent preparedness for Covid-19 vaccine roll-out against a recommended rate of 80 per cent.
The country will also need awareness campaigns to increase demand.
Akhwale said the deployment plan will cost Sh34 billion, to cover 30 per cent of the population between March 2021 to June 2023.
Gavi will offer support worth Sh20 billion while Kenya will only pay Sh14 billion.
“This is a donation. When we buy vaccine worth Sh10 billion, you get vaccines worth double,” Akhwale said.
Kenya requires 30 million doses to vaccinate 60 per cent of its population, as recommended by the global public-private health partnership Gavi.
The government is also considering the vaccines being sold through the Africa CDC, to cover 10 per cent of the population.
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