Kenya is also among the six African countries that will soon be able to produce Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at home using the same technologies adopted in Western countries.
This was announced by the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press videoconference convened in Brussels by France, South Africa and the European Council. According to what EU officials confirmed, the European bloc will invest around $45 million to implement local production in Africa.
Along with Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal and Tunisia, Kenya will be the only East African nation to receive mRNA technology and be able to take advantage of global quality standards.
The tool and "know-how" transfer project has been put in place as part of efforts to help low-income countries produce Covid-19 vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna and consequently move closer to vaccine equity between less wealthy countries and those that until now have been able to access millions of doses easily.
The transfer process will begin in the coming weeks, but already since last year WHO has been setting up its global mRNA technology transfer hub to address supply bottlenecks and increase vaccination rates in poor countries.
However, there are still a few minor details to be ironed out in the operation. The African countries involved, in fact, have requested a waiver on intellectual property rights under emergency exemptions to allow for local mass production.
A request, the latter, that has already been opposed in the past by the large pharmaceutical companies.
Meanwhile, Kenya's Ministry of Health has updated its data: 16 million people in Kenya have received at least one dose, meaning 1 in 4 adults have accessed the vaccine program. Also on Friday, February 18, there were no official deaths related to Covid-19, and intensive care units are virtually empty: only three patients are admitted to public health facilities for severe coronavirus symptoms. Another 137 patients are admitted to general wards and 193 are in isolation at their homes with an individualized care program.
The percentage of positives compared to the swabs performed, which numbered 5679 in the last 24 hours, is parts to 0.5%. Extremely flattering data.