The vaccination of Kenya's 26 million adults is part of a plan to attain herd immunity.
Kenya will have vaccinated its entire adult population of 26 million by the end of 2022, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced on Tuesday in a national address on the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country had set a goal of vaccinating 10 million adults by June 2022, but President Kenyatta said inoculation will be accelerated.
"By Christmas this year, we intend to have vaccinated over 10 million adults. According to our experts, we will have built a capacity to vaccinate 150,000 people every day from August 2021," he told the nation.
President Kenyatta explained that the acceleration will be aided by factors such as acquisition of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, with requires just one shot. Kenya expects to receive its first consignment in August.
"In the process of negotiating with this company, we managed to get a lower price. For the price of 10 million vaccines, we have negotiated for them to deliver 13 million vaccines," Mr Kenyatta said.
"Using these vaccines and others in the pipelines, this is how we will vaccinate over 10 million Kenyans by Christmas 2021 and 26 million by the end of 2022."
The government further said that if a vaccine for underage populations is registered by early next year, an extra four million young adults will have received the vaccine by June 2022.
"A vaccinated population of 30 million will allow us to begin the journey for herd immunity’ against this pandemic. This is our intention for the next 12 months," the President said.
Kenya's has recorded 183,603 Covid-19 cases with a current positivity rate of 9.5 percent. It has also recorded 125,388 recoveries and a death toll of 3,621.
In terms of vaccination, a total of 1,334,749 doses had been administered by Tuesday, 1,005,901 being first doses and 328,848 second doses.
President Kenyatta issued several other instructions to help curb the spread of Covid-19 in Kenya:
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