By Ben Gachiri
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) today donated a consignment of 5460 cartons containing 131,040 bottles of hand sanitizers to Garissa County to support the war against Covid-19.
The donation was handed over by Mohamed Gurhan on behalf of UNHCR to County Secretary Abdi M. Ali during a brief ceremony held at the Emergency Response Centre.
The hand-over was also witnessed by Abdinoor Ole Hussein, the County Director of Special Programs, Mohamed Sahal, the Director of Donor Co-ordination and Partnerships and Ahmed Haji, the County Public Health Coordinator.
According to Gurhan, the donation is meant to showcase UNHCR’s solidarity with the County and the people of Garissa in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to cement their partnership and co-operation.
CS Ali thanked UNHCR for the donation and said the sanitizers will be distributed free of charge to all public offices, learning institutions, market places, orphanages and rescue centers and even to bodaboda riders.
He called on Garissa residents to get the Covid-19 jab and relevant booster shots to cushion themselves against the virus saying this will go a long way in boosting immunity as new mutations of the virus crop up.
“The Covid-19 vaccines are in stock in all our county health facilities and I call on all residents to take a personal initiative to enable us raise the number of our vaccinated population which currently is the sixth lowest in the country at 5.4 per cent,” he said.
The CS rallying call comes just a day after the Council of Governors raised concerns over low uptake of Covid-19 vaccines in the arid and semi-arid counties.
Neighboring Tana River has only fully vaccinated just 3.6 per cent of the target population while Wajir, Mandera, Kilifi, Marsabit and Isiolo have 4.6, 5.3, 5.6, 5.6 and 7.1 per cent respectively.