KAMPALA: The Ministry of Health says 7.9 million people have been fully vaccinated since last year.
The country launched its vaccination exercise on March 10th, 2021, exactly one year ago. The exercise initially targeted frontline workers such as medical officers, hospital staff, teachers, aviation workers, and security officers.
But as the country received more COVID-19 doses, the exercise was opened to the general public.
Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the Minister of Health, says in one year, over 14 million people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. Of these, 7.9 million have been fully vaccinated, while 20,758 have received booster doses.
Dr. Aceng revealed the figures after receiving 2,944,800 doses of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine on Wednesday. The doses were donated by Spain (1,951,200 doses), France (950,000 doses), and Norway, which gave 43,200 doses. They made the donation through COVAX, the global vaccine sharing facility.
Because more doses have arrived, the Minister of Health says that this is a step in the right direction for reducing both CVOVID-19’s spread and its effects.
She said, “We have so far vaccinated 14,054,059 people with the first dose, while 7,924,329 are fully vaccinated and 20,758 have received booster doses.”
To date, Uganda has received a total of 40,069,100 doses of various COVID-19 vaccines, including over 14.9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson and 11.7 million doses of Pfizer. The country has so far received over 4.8 million doses of Moderna, 6.8 million doses of AstraZeneca and 1.6 million doses of Sinovac.
In Entebbe, Dr. Aceng got the most recent donations from the head office of the National Medical Stores-NMS.
While handing over the donated doses of Johnson & Johnson to the Ugandan government, Jaime Fernandez-Rua, the Charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Spain in Kenya, said his country will donate 55 million COVID-19 doses early this year. 25 million doses will be delivered to various African countries. He added that Spain is against inequality in vaccine distribution across the globe.
Moses Kamabare, the General Manager at NMS, says this is the second time Spain is donating vaccine doses to Uganda. Its first batch of 1,236,000 doses of Moderna arrived last December, while France has donated several doses of AstraZeneca Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
In Kamabare’s words, NMS will give out the new doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine to different health centres with help from the health ministry.
Vaccine doses from Johnson and Johnson have mostly been given to hard-to-reach places like islands, like Kalangala.
Mandatory Vaccination
The government wants to make vaccination mandatory as proposed in the Public Health Act and Public Health (Amendment) Bill, 2021. Failure to comply attracts a fine of 4,000 shillings or a jail term of six months.
This comes after the country tried to get half of its population, which is about 45 million people, vaccinated and also tried to make certain areas, like public transportation, no-jab, no-entry.
Since last year, many doses of vaccines have expired because people haven’t taken them. The most recent batch of 400,000 doses was destroyed this January because people didn’t take them.
Parliament is currently scrutinising the Bill, with ministry of health officials justifying the need for vaccine mandates and some individuals and organisations such as Uganda Law Society-ULS opposing the proposal. For these and other considerations, the ULS says there is a need for the public to consent to mandatory vaccination and that exceptions should be given for those with certain health reasons.