NAIROBI — The number of people who have been vaccinated in Kenya against COVID-19 crossed the 2 million mark on Saturday, a major milestone for the east African nation as it races to give jabs to as many people as possible.
Mutahi Kagwe, cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Health, announced that as of Saturday, 2.01 million people had been vaccinated, up from 1.97 million Friday.
“Of these, total first doses are 1.26 million while second 744,186,” Kagwe said in a statement released in Nairobi, capital of Kenya.
Kenya’s COVID-19 vaccination drive has picked up since last week after the government allowed any citizens to get the jabs at designated places.
State agencies and private firms are also fighting vaccine hesitancy by organizing the exercise for their workforce.
Kenya targets to vaccinate 26 million people by the end of 2022, according to the Ministry of Health.
After a lull of a month or so since its last wave, positive cases climbed swiftly in August with the ministry recording upward of 1,000 cases every single day.
There have been 219,938 infections and 4,319 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.