Kenya has ordered 24 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, enough to cover 20% of the country’s population, according to local media reports.
The reports, which cited officials from the East African country’s Ministry of Health, said the government will spend 10bn Kenya shillings ($89m) for the vaccines. This is approximately the cost also given by the Global Vaccine Alliance Initiative GAVI, which says each dose will cost about $3 (about Sh320).
The amount is already heavily discounted by GAVI through donations from a number of developed countries, the World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
The ministry submitted its request to GAVI last week, according to the report
The World Bank puts the population of Kenya currently at more than 52 million.
It is not clear which vaccine the East African country has ordered but the announcement means Kenya has applied for the largest number of doses in East Africa.
Last Thursday, Uganda announced that it ordered nine million doses of the Oxford University-Astrazeneca vaccine to cover 20 per cent of the country’s population of 43 million people.
On Sunday Rwanda’s Minister of Health Daniel Ngamije announced they have applied for the Covid-19 vaccine, but he did not give the specifics.