Background and objective: Globally, COVID-19 pandemic resulted in 260,682,363 cases, 5,203,984 deaths as at Nov 2021. Africa had 3,656,605 cases 90,122 deaths; Kenya 254,781 cases, 5330 deaths and Busia County 5683 cases with 68 deaths. WHO (2021) estimates that between 80,000 - 180 000 health care workers could have died globally from COVID-19 Kenya: 7, 848 COVID-19 infections and 53 deaths among HCP; Busia: 247 infections and 3 deaths. Health care providers accounted for a significant number of initial COVID-19 cases and were potential victims and propagators of the COVID -19 infection WHO prioritized Health care providers for COVID-19 vaccine.
Methods: Descriptive cross -sectional study Busia County- Kenya, in the 7 sub counties, 423 health care providers in Busia County Multistage sampling was used. Health facilities were organised in strata according to the level of service provision were randomly selected. Inclusion of HCPs in the final sample was based on PPS using duty rotas Structured questionnaires were interviewer administered via Kobo collect tool. The process of data collection from 25th May to 15th June 2022.
Results: Acceptance was 94.3% (n=399) Those aged above 35 years (OR: 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1 - 0.6; P=0.002), Female HCPs (OR: 2.3; 95% ci: 1 - 5.5; P=0.037), married (96.3%) living with others (96.2%) were more likely to accept the vaccine, The acceptance rate among those who had a chronic medical condition (86.4%) was significantly low (OR: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.1 - 0.9; P=0.03) as compared to those who reported no chronic condition (95.2%). Information, HCP (OR:5, CI:1.7- 14.7, p=        0.009) and print media (OR:4.6, CI:1.7-12.5, p=0.007) had a significant influence on the COVID-19 vaccine Acceptance. The most cited barrier to vaccine acceptance was lack of information on vaccine safety.

Recommendations: Plan for increased engagements by the Ministry of health to get the understanding of key stake holders. More studies done to minimize adverse effects thus make vaccines friendlier.