Kenya to Roll Out Covid-19 Boosters Amid New Surge in Infections

(Bloomberg) -- Kenya will begin to give Covid-19 boosters from Jan. 1 to raise its population’s immunity against the virus.

The government will prioritize “health-care workers, security personnel, teachers, those with co-existing medical conditions and those above 50 years of age,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said late Friday. 

The East African nation has fully vaccinated 15% of its adult population, with authorities administering 10 million doses since they began inoculations in March last year, he said. It aims to vaccinate 30 million people by the end of 2022, Kenyatta said. 

Kenya is experiencing a surge in infections that started mid-December, fueled by the omicron variant. The positivity rate reached nearly 30% on Dec. 31, with a total of 295,028 reported cases and 5,378 fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health.  

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