A total of 345,000 teachers have taken the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine over the last one month, surpassing the government target of 330,000 teachers.

The latest report by the Ministry of Health shows that 345,000 teachers in public schools have taken the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while 125,274 had completed both doses.

The remaining teachers are expected to take their second dose in the next two weeks in line with the six week window advised by health experts.

National Covid-19 vaccine deployment task force chairman, Dr Willis Akhwale yesterday attributed the increased uptake of the doses to the improved flow of vaccines into the country.

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“We have witnessed a high uptake of the first dose by teachers in the last one month,” he said last evening as 204 people tested positive for the disease from a sample size of 2,963 tested in the last 24 hours.

The positivity rate remained at 6.9 percent for two days consecutively.With the improved supply of vaccines, already 150,000 teachers in private schools have also taken the first dose after the government expanded the vaccination target to this group.

Another consignment of AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in the country yesterday when the government received 210,000 doses from Poland.

“The arrival of the doses is a welcome boost to the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme,” Dr Akhwale said as the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) plans to commence phase one of the private sector led Covid-19 vaccinations tomorrow.

He said the event will be presided over by Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache and Chief Administrative Secretary, Dr Mercy Mwangangi.

Kepsa chairperson Flora Mutahi and CEO Carole Kariuki will give an elaborate plan and modalities put in place to ensure a maximum number of employees are vaccinated in the shortest time possible.

Dr Akhwale confirmed yesterday that half of the 141,600 J&J vaccine doses received last week were allocated to Kepsa which had mobilised Sh1 billion for the procurement through the Africa Union platform.

Already, a total of 3,099,807 vaccines have been administered across the country as of Sunday.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said last evening that of these, total first doses were 2,270,827 while second doses were 828,980.

“The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose was at 36.5 per cent with the majority being males at 56 per cent while females were at 44 percent,” he added. The proportion of adults who are fully vaccinated hit 3.04 per cent.

An estimated 137, 115 health workers; 125, 274 teachers and 70, 182 security officers have been vaccinated so far. Those aged 58 years and above who have been vaccinated are, 244,998 and 251,411 others.

On August 17, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) gave teachers seven days to go for the jab or face disciplinary action.

“We will be asking our county directors and regional directors the number of teachers they have facilitated to get the vaccination and how many teachers are not vaccinated and for whatever reasons, because the Ministry of Health has assured us that there are enough vaccines,” Nancy Macharia, the Commission Chief Executive Officer said.

By then, only 33 per cent of the teachers had been vaccinated. However, immediately the directive was issued, the following day teachers thronged vaccination centres to beat the deadline.

Health officials had warned that school children are at risk if teachers and staff are not vaccinated.Macharia expressed concern with the ‘reluctance’ amid the slow pace that had been witnessed so far.

She said the number of those who had taken both the first and second doses, was inspiring and needed to be enhanced.

She raised concern that teachers had not fully embraced the vaccine despite the government placing them among the frontline workers, therefore, putting them on top of the priority list as far as mitigation measures are concerned.

An estimated 178,734 and 110, 42 teachers had received their first and second doses respectively by August 14.

Tutors have seven days to comply with State directive to get vaccinated or forfeit their August remuneration.

More than 200,000 teachers risk missing out on their August salaries for failing to take the Covid-19 jab.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) gave the tutors, from both public and private schools, seven days to take the full dosage of the Covid-19 AstraZeneca Vaccine in line with a directive by Public Service head joseph Kinyua that all pubic servants take the TSC doses or face unspecified disciplinary measures.

Yesterday, TSC Secretary Dr Nancy Macharia revealed that only 110,342 teachers have received full dosage since the exercise began, against the government target of 130,671.

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Another 178,734 had only taken the first dose, the teachers employer announced yesterday. Macharia termed the figures far from impressive and gave those yet to get the jab seven days to comply.

She regretted that the number is still low despite the government having prioritised and identified teachers as frontline workers together with health, police and Military officers, who were targeted during phase one of the vaccination

A well-placed source at the TSC headquarters who sought anonymity revealed that the commission may consider a raft of disciplinary measures against those who do not comply with the directive.

“What TSC is doing is to enforce the Kinyua directive among teachers, failure to which there will be penalties such as withholding the next salaries for those who will not have taken the jab upon the expiry of the seven-day notice,” said the source.

Last week, the government ordered all civil servants to take the jab within two weeks or risk disciplinary action after only a few volunteered to take the jab.

Kinyua accused some State officials of deliberately refusing to get vaccinated so that they can stay at home, negatively affecting service delivery.

“In our recent meeting, it was reported that there was a low uptake of covid-19 vaccines among public servants” said Kinyua.

“It has therefore been decided that all the civil servants will be prioritised in the ongoing vaccination and that those who will not have been given the vaccination by august 23^rd will be treated as disciplinary cases and appropriate action will be taken against them,” he added.

Kinyua directed principal secretaries and accounting officers to ensure the directive is adhered to. It is against this backdrop that Macharia, as the TSC accounting officer, Issued yesterday’s warning.

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In his most recent communication to all Principal Secretaries and Accounting Officers, Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua threatened that disciplinary action will be taken against public servants who would not have received their first Covid-19 jab by August 23, 2021.

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Kinyua noted that the government was left with no options but to arrive at the decision due to the reluctance in taking the vaccine among public servants, especially the security sector, teachers and the core civil service despite increased access of the vaccines to the groups.

“In a recent NSAC meeting, it was reported that there was a low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines among public servants especially the security sector, teachers and the core civil service. This is against a background of access to vaccines having greatly improved especially among these groups,” Kinyua said in a circular dated August 5.

Kinyua alleged that some civil servants intentionally avoid getting vaccinated to stay away from work under the pretense of working from home, a habit that has negatively affected service delivery to the public.

“It has therefore been decided that all civil servants will be prioritized in the ongoing vaccination exercise and that those who will not have been given the la jab by 23rd August 2021 be treated as discipline cases and appropriate action taken against them,” he added.

“Principal Secretaries and Accounting Officers are hereby instructed to ensure full implementation of this decision.”

Latest Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicates that over 1.8 free vaccines have so far been administered across the country. Of these, total first doses are 1,105,470 while second doses are 698,905.

“The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 63.2% with the majority being males at 55% while females are at 45%,” said Health CS Mutahi Kagwe adding that the proportion of adults fully vaccinated is 2.6%.

The total number of Covid-19 cases confirmed in the country so far stands at 212,573 from 2.2 million tests conducted.

The whole world felt slightly relieved on Monday 9^th November 2020 when Pfizer, a Drug company in US gave its report concerning a possible covid-19 vaccine. The giant drug company reported that from the data they had sampled, the vaccine which has been under test is above 90% effective in preventing Covid-19.  This is good news since the vaccine has just come in at a time when there is a second wave of covid-19 globally. Should the trend in rising cases continue, then the vaccine from Pfizer will be of great aid.

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In the interim analysis of the vaccine, more than 43,000 volunteers were grouped into two. The first group was subjected to the Pfizer vaccine while the other half was subjected to a placebo. 10% the infections recorded were from the participants who had been subjected to the Pfizer’s vaccine.90% of the positive cases were from the group that had been subjected to a placebo.

In its report, Pfizer acknowledged its partnership with BioNTech, a giant drug company based in Germany. The reports have it that the vaccine’s efficacy rate is above 90% by the 7^th day after the second dose. This implies that within 28 days of commencing vaccination, the vaccinated person gets protected. Two doses of the vaccine are mandatory, for very effective results.

Pfizer and BioNTech have gone beyond American food and drug administration’s (FAD) expectation, which was only 50% efficacy.

A medical correspondent described the covid-19 vaccine as “the greatest medical advance” in the last century.  “Emotions are very high. You can imagine how I felt when I heard the results yesterday at 2 p.m. I think that likely, based on impact, this will be the greatest medical advance in the last 100 years,” Bourla confirmed.

The drug maestro requested to monitor the volunteers for 60 days when they will administer the second dose of the vaccine, before seeking a green light from FDA to use the vaccine. The drug is projected to be in the market by week 3 of November.