After 5 days of waiting the text finally came providing actual proof of an event which I was privileged and lucky to have been part of – receiving the Covid-19 Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
The process had started with online booking on a portal for the hospital where I was to get the jab. This entailed filling out the Ministry of Health form and receive a booking number through a text notification.
On the day of the vaccination I arrived at the hospital and presented my booking number to a receptionist. She wrote the number on a piece of paper in front of her that had other booking numbers (felt this was digitally redundant) and asked me to wait at the reception.
The wait provided me with ample time to think about the prevailing situation in the country regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kenya is currently in the middle of a third wave of the pandemic. Unlike the previous strains that were prevalent in the country for most of 2020 which saw many get infected and stay asymptomatic, the current strain is lethal.
Death and ill-health have engulfed the country. Every family is mourning a loved one or scrambling to raise funds to ensure medical care for a relative.
ICU beds and oxygen are scarce with admission to a hospital for a Covid patient pegged at USD 3,000 in cash up-front.
Kenya’s healthcare is shaky at the best of times and despite a one year grace period to get a semblance of order and even a warning, the Ministry of Health has been caught flat-footed. This has resulted in an average of 20 deaths daily from Covid-19 being reported each day for the last one month.
A silver lining amidst this prevailing gloom is the fact that Kenya received 1.02 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine through the global COVAX facility in early March 2021.
According to the Ministry of Health, the first beneficiaries were to include frontline workers such as health care professionals, teachers and security personnel.
Due to vaccine apathy among the service providers, the government opened up the vaccination programme. First to Kenyans above 58 years as a priority and then eventually to the general public.
This is what eventually led to my being at the hospital reception awaiting my turn and my chance to receive the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine so as to enhance my chances against getting critically ill from a Covid infection.
Presently my number was called out by a medic and she asked me to proceed down the hall and queue outside Room Number 4.
Then after awhile I was ushered into Room Number 4 where I AGAIN filled out the Ministry of Health form before another medic took my blood pressure, blood sugar and body temperature and wrote the results on the form despite having a computer in front of her.
I then went back out and waited to proceed to Room Number 3. After she had collected a sizeable amount of filled forms the medic in Room Number 4 took them next door to Room Number 3. Presently another medic holding the forms she had being given called me into Room Number 3 for the jab.
The jab administered by yet a different medic was over in a split-second.
I am not a fan of pain and I felt nothing so there really is nothing to fear.
A little while after the jab I felt a tingling on my pricked arm which eventually felt like a dull pain that went away after a couple of days.
I also experienced mild chills, fever as well as a mild headache. The biggest reaction was a dry mouth, hiccups and a lot of thirst. There was also mild fatigue. Basically what one would feel at the start of a cold and I was lucky all these mild side-effects were over in a couple of days. In contrast two of my female friends reported more intense flu-like symptoms.
The AstraZeneca vaccine, which Kenya is using, has raised some health safety concerns in some regions of the world, especially in Europe. Yes, there are more serious side-effects to getting the vaccine but the benefits of getting vaccinated far outweigh the one in a million risk of getting for example a blood clot.
The road to victory against the pandemic will be long and winding but the vaccine moves humanity that much closer to victory. So if you have a chance to get vaccinated please do grab it.
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As of today, 700,000 of the 1.02 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine imported have been administered in Kenya.
Due to increased Covid infections in India which is the location of the manufacture of the AstraZeneca, the Indian government has chosen to cease exports and this will affect availability of vaccines globally. How is the Kenyan government going to tackle this development?
The science regarding receiving a single dose of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is reassuring.
Despite the fact that it took 5 days before I received a text from the Ministry of Health Chanjo (Immunization in Kiswahili) portal confirming my first dose vaccination and informing me of the date of my second jab, the digitization of the process is impressive.
Watching the medics shuffle my form from one point to another got me thinking that there is an opportunity in our hospitals to fully digitize their processes for both efficiency and safety. Are Kenyan techies ready to provide solutions?
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In my I-am-tired-to-be-Kenyan moments there are things that I think of.
The Kemsa Covid theft reportedly saw 8 billion Kenyan shillings stolen. How many vaccines are those? In 2020, Kenya borrowed or got grants worth 250 billion Kenyan shillings for Covid mitigation. Again, how many vaccines could have been bought with say 100 billion Kenyan shillings of that?
I have just gotten done reading George Orwell’s 1984 and it is uncanny how so much of that book is totally relevant today.
For example this quote, “Manufacturing weapons of war is a convenient way of expanding labour power without producing anything that can be consumed.”
So apt for Kenya which constructed a small arms factory grandly opened by President Kenyatta the Second but has an oxygen shortage and a scarcity of ICU beds.
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These are trying times for all. Health-wise, economically and ultimately mentally.
May we all find the strength to survive day by day and eventually pull through.
GOD BLESS KENYA!
Moderate Kenyan 