The government will pay special attention to ensuring that the cold chain requirements for the Covid-19 vaccine are maintained to avoid compromising on quality.
Already, the doses have been distributed to all the nine regional vaccine centres across the country with some counties rolling out the vaccination process.
Nairobi Metropolitan Services rolled out the process on Tuesday at Mutuini Hospital with the exercise expected to go on in six other health facilities in the county.
“If any centre contravenes any condition requirements it will be delisted from the list of approved sites. We shall not compromise the quality of our vaccination because of the poor management of the cold chain,” Taskforce on Vaccines Deployment chairperson Dr Willis Akhwale said.
“And this is not a threat, it is a practice even in childhood any facility whether public or private which cannot maintain it will be removed until it meets the criteria again,” he added.
The vaccination process has commenced in public health centres with the number of centres expected to hit 47 by the end of the week.
Akhwale received the Covid jab alongside the NMS DG Dr Josephine Mbae and Dr Ouma Oluga.
“We are working with the government health authorities to enlist a further 432 health facilities both public and private including faith-based facilities to offer vaccination during this first phase that runs until June 30.”
Akhwale said the final list will be shared by the public once approved by the Ministry of Health Principal Secretary is granted.
The ministry will also be working with the county health teams including NMS to undertake supportive supervision to the vaccination centres.
“There is no known cure for Covid-19 and prevention is key. The preventive measures include social distancing, hand washing and wearing a mask. We urge all members of the public to continue adhering to these measures,” NMS DG Mohammed Badi said.
The task force chairman however maintained that there will be no jumping the queues during the first phase of the process that targets frontline healthcare workers, adding that county health authorities should ensure the priority list is maintained.
The 1.02 million doses of vaccines that arrived in the country last week were flagged off from the national store in Kitengela by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“Because of the demand for vaccines globally, we are rolling out the vaccine deployment in phases with the first phase targeting frontline healthcare workers and others providing essential services,” Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said.
The ministry has said the existing cold chain capacity will be extended at the health facility level to enable them to handle Covid-19 vaccines alongside the existing childhood vaccines.
According to the Health Ministry, the government has scaled up coverage of immunisation services from 50 per cent to more than 90 per cent of the health facilities in the country through procurement and installation of specialized vaccine storage equipment in at least 5,000 health facilities.
Similarly, 290 subcounty vaccine depots have been set up as well as the construction of a national and eight regional ultramodern vaccine depots.