Nairobi, Feb 24 (IANS): Kenya has fully vaccinated about half of its elderly population against Covid-19, the Ministry of Health said in an update.

The east African nation as of Tuesday had fully vaccinated 1.23 million people aged 58 years and above, against a target of 2.59 million, the Ministry added.

This makes a vaccination percentage of 47.3 for the elderly, who were categorised by the government as a priority group alongside teachers, security personnel and health workers at the onset of Covid-19 in March 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, while the number of the vaccinated elderly people has been growing, the rise has been slow as compared to other priority groups.

For health workers, the government has surpassed its targeted population, while for teachers 97 per cent have been vaccinated, said the Ministry.

According to the Kenya National Census of 2019, there were 1.9 million people aged 65 and above, representing 3.9 per cent of the total 48 million population.

The number of those vaccinated against the disease stood at 16.2 million on Tuesday.

Kenya plans to fully vaccinate 19 million adults (70 per cent of the adult population) by the end of June 20.