Kenya Has Commenced Covid-19 Vaccine Phase 1 Clinical Trials

The Covid-19 pandemic dealt a big blow to global wealth and though The African continent didn’t suffer as many casualties compared to Europe and the United States; the economy of many African countries suffered huge losses especially in terms of Tourism. Kenya, the recently named Top Tourism destination country, has commenced Covid-19 vaccine trials.

According to Africanews; Nairobi, Kenya has a new hospital equipped with 100 hospital beds and COVID-19 treating facilities; to cater to those with the means to afford its health services; including diplomats and United Nations staff as it was built in collaboration; with the international organisation at a cost of 8 million US dollars.

Kenya has also, begun phase 1 trials of one of the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates; which have been developed by the University of Oxford in partnership with the pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca.

George Warimwe, a virologist with the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Program, shared his insight into the process; “We are going to move on to the next phase of vaccinating more participants and over time you learn more about the performance of the vaccine in our Kenyan population. Now, this is a process that all these other countries that are now in the thousands, of people vaccinated, had to go through.”

This week, vaccine trials targeting 40 frontline workers began with two professionals already having undergone vaccinations.