Astral Aviation CEO, Sanjeev Gadhia on how Kenya and East Africa are preparing for vaccine transportation.
“With the arrival of 1 million doses in Kenya and 840,000 doses in Uganda of the AstraZeneca Vaccines from the COVAX Facility and a donation of 100,000 doses to Kenya and Uganda by the Government of India, both countries have rolled out country-wide vaccination program targeting the medical workers and the elderly, in phase one.
“Kenya plans to vaccinate 15 million of its population in 2021 and will require 30 million doses of vaccines, which will be met by the COVAX Facility and direct purchase.
“Uganda plans to vaccinate 23 million people and will require 45 million doses of vaccines, which will be met by the COVAX Facility and direct purchase of 21.5 million doses in 2021 and balance in 2022.
“While Kenya and Uganda have an elaborate vaccination program, its neighbour, Tanzania, is recovering from the shock of the untimely death of its President who insisted that the country was free from COVID, and advocated the use of herbs and steam-inhalation instead of vaccines.
“East Africa continues to prosper despite the negative effect of Covid-19 on its tourism and hospitality sector will achieve a growth rate of 4.8%.
“Kenya is one of three African countries which can handle large-scale storage of Covid-19 vaccines at the freighter-friendly airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, which boasts 9,000 m2 of air-side cold-storage facility which can hold over 200 million doses of vaccines. With the combined fleet and network of Astral Aviation and Kenya Airways Cargo, the Nairobi hub will play an important role in the distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines to and within Africa.”
