Blinken hails US-Kenya relations

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Kenya's Foreign Minister Raychelle Omamo to the State Department on Friday.

In brief remarks Blinken said the United States has a "very important strategic partnership" with Kenya.

The two diplomats said they plan to discuss global and regional issues including moving forward in the aftermath of COVID -19.

The U.S. will begin making its first COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Africa in the coming days, with the ultimate goal of sharing 25 million doses this summer across the continent in partnership with the African Union.

"There are 1.7 million vaccines that are on route soon to Kenya, Blinken said.

To date the U.S. has shipped more than 53 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 30 countries and territories.

Recently, Africa director Matshidiso Moeti says some hospitals across the continent of 1.3 billion people are at the breaking point.

She says Africa has registered 1 million new coronavirus cases in the past month, the shortest time for such an increase in infections.

The African continent has confirmed more than 6 million cases.

The highly infectious delta variant has been identified in 21 countries in the WHO Africa region.

Meanwhile just over 1% of people across Africa have been fully vaccinated. Health officials are concerned about the slow arrival of doses.

The World Health Organization says another 190 million vaccine doses are needed to fully vaccinate 10% of Africa's population.

But it says some 450,000 vaccine doses have expired in about eight African countries because doses arrived late or were not used in time. WHO says that situation is improving.

IMAGE: AP