• They called for the lifting of export restrictions to allow vaccine production within Africa
• Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said vaccine rollout globally had been unequal
• The total number of administered vaccines in Kenya stands at 3,554,424

Leaders from the East African Community (EAC) have called for concerted efforts towards equitable global access to vaccines and support in investment to enable production of vaccines in developing nations.

The Community’s Secretary General Peter Mathuki supported the call by the leaders to waive intellectual property rights to allow more countries, particularly low- and middle-income countries, to produce COVID-19 vaccines.

Mathuki said intellectual property rights and export restrictions need to be lifted to allow vaccine production within the African continent.

“A region that is not vaccinated is a source of propagating new variants of the Covid-19 virus,” said Mathuki.

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He spoke during the sidelines of High-Level debates at the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, USA.

Those who spoke at the event include Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan who made her maiden address at the Assembly.

Samia said vaccine rollout globally had been unequal, adding that the pandemic had continued to have devastating effects in Tanzania.

“Globally, when Covid-19 vaccines were developed, some of us were hopeful that this would be something good for humanity,” Samia said, according to The Citizen. “Nevertheless, we have come to realise that the virus is moving faster than production and distribution of vaccines as the vast majority have been administered in high and middle-income countries”

Their sentiments come even as Kenya has continued to vaccinate more people.

Earlier today, the Ministry of Health announced that it has administered 3,554,424 vaccines across the country. Of the number, total first doses administered were 2,672,861 while second doses were 881,563.

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Low uptake of vaccines

Overall, Kenya’s total number of confirmed positive cases have reached 248,069 after 394 more people tested positive of the disease.

The vaccination milestone comes barely a month after the Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua, directed all civil servants to get the COVID-19 vaccine or face the music.

As reported by TUKO.co.ke, Kinyua decried low uptake of coronavirus vaccine among members of the civil service under the guise of wanting to work from home, thus negatively impacting service delivery.

In a circular to the ministry principal secretaries on August 5, Kinyua warned unspecified action would be taken against those who would not be inoculated by or before August 23.

Source: TUKO.co.ke

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