By Betty Luke
A section of clerics in Isiolo have appealed to the elderly in the society to take Covid-19 jab to stay safe from the disease even as 80 percent of Covid-19 related deaths that continue to be reported daily are of elderly people.
Speaking after receiving their second dose of the jab at Isiolo Referral Hospital, representatives from the Interfaith Council dismissed claims that the vaccine has negative side effects of the vaccine and urged those aged above 58 years to take the jab.
Isiolo Interfaith Chair Ahmed Sett and his Secretary Stephen Kalunyu urged locals to embrace health measures put in place by the Ministry of Health to keep the disease at bay.
“I appeal to everyone to visit health centres for vaccination to stay safe from the virus,” Mr Sett urged.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) statistics, more than 70 percent of deaths across all the four waves of the virus were elders with the number increasing during the third and the fourth waves.
The appeal comes as data from the MoH shows that only 55 percent of those aged 58 years and above have been fully vaccinated.
A total of 416, 138 elderly people were fully vaccinated with either Johnson and Johnson or AstraZeneca jabs while 734, 086 were yet to receive their second AstraZeneca doses.
According to the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Task Force Head Dr Willis Akhwale, the majority of elderly people were reluctant to even seek health care services for fear of contracting the disease.
He urged the religious leaders to take up the responsibility of educating the public on the importance of being vaccinated to stem spread of the disease.
