On September 15th, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) led by the CEO Ms. Carole Kariuki, Chair Ms. Flora Mutahi and Dr. Kanyenje Gakombe – Chair, Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) together with Dr. Mercy Mwangangi – Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Health, held a press briefing on the commencement of phase one of the Private Sector-led Covid-19 vaccinations. The brief aimed at elaborating on the plans and modalities put in place to ensure a maximum number of employees are vaccinated in the shortest time possible.
Flora Mutahi – KEPSA Chair stated, “As the private sector, we decided to support the government in two ways, Financially and also push the uptake of the vaccine because the more people are getting vaccinated, the quicker we all can get back to business. I thank the government for allowing us to partner with them. We are appealing to the rest of the private sector to come forth and partner with us in the second phase.”
“As the private sector, we realized that we cannot import the vaccines, and therefore chose to partner with the government, so that as the government does so it can do in large scale and also during the vaccination drive, also be able to reach the population in different parts of the country.”
“We have grouped our companies into groups and allocated different centres, where the vaccines will be administered with the help of seven hospitals approved by the Ministry of Health. The seven are Avenue Hospital, Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, Meridian Hospital, MP Shah Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, Karen Hospital and Nairobi Women’s Hospital.”
“Today we are very proud to really demonstrate the working of the Public Private Partnership. We are particularly happy because this partnership has seen us see the realization of the J&J vaccine in the country which has been realized through resources from the exchequer and the private sector. We will do the vaccination in the private sector in phase and we are optimistic that we will hit our bigger target as a country of having 10 million doses in the country by December.”
“Part of what will help us in this fight against COVID-19 are facts and the use of digital tools that are available. We are tracking infections, testing and vaccinations to know whether things are working. Out of the admissions in HDU and ICU, generally, there are no double vaccinated patients. With the Delta variant wave, we noted that we are getting more younger patients and even pregnant women, and this led us to change the scheduling of our vaccination so as to also target this group.”