According to UNEPI, over 1.3 trillion shillings have been spent on the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign. However, the majority of these funds have been allocated to procuring vaccines and paying health worker allowances but little money was set aside for data entrants which have led to delays in uploading vaccination information
The Ministry had set out to have vaccinated all the targeted 22million people by end of March, but Kyabayinze says they are still struggling to have half of those fully vaccinated and therefore they cannot start enforcing punitive vaccination mandates.
Out of the targeted 22 million people, 13 million representing 60 percent of the targeted group have received one jab while another 2.4 million (32 percent) have got two doses.
Last month, the national COVID-19 Incident Commander Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze told URN that they are yet to upload data of 6.5 million people to their portal.
According to the WHO Africa region office, the African continent has so far received more than 587 million vaccine doses;58 percent through the COVAX Facility, 36percent from bilateral deals and percent through the Africa Vaccines Acquisition Trust (AVAT) of the African Union. In January 2022, 96 million doses were shipped to Africa, which is more than double that of six months ago. However, despite such vaccine stocks, countries are still not vaccinating. So far, only 11 percent of the people on the continent are vaccinated
Addressing journalists at the Media Centre on Friday, the Minister for Health Ruth Aceng said that all passengers aged 18 years and above will have to present Covid-19 vaccination cards indicating full dosage before they are allowed to travel.
The first phase of the vaccination targeting health workers, teachers, security personnel, the elderly, and persons above the age of 50 was budgeted to cost Shillings 1.3 trillion. The second phase that is still ongoing and targets communities reporting high infections is budgeted to cost Shillings 46 billion.
But, the CDC says that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines take a few hours to thaw and must be administered quickly once they are no longer being refrigerated. The Pfizer vaccine is only stable for six hours at room temperature while a punctured Moderna vaccine vial is viable for up to 12 hours.
Dr. Henry Mwebesa, the Director-General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health says unvaccinated health workers are a threat to both patients and their families.
So far, Uganda has received over 11.5 million vaccines with an additional nine million Johnson&Johnson vaccines expected to arrive next month. However, data from the health ministry shows that only 3.9 million vaccines have been distributed with only around 750,000 people fully vaccinated.
Initially, President Museveni had tagged school re-opening and opening of other sectors of the economy to the vaccination of people above 18 years However, addressing the nation on Thursday, Museveni seemed to make a U-turn and said that they will not force Ugandans to get vaccinated.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has notified Members of Parliament that starting next week, they will be required to present Covid-19 vaccination cards to attend sittings.
According to the World Health Organisation, reports from the United Nations Children International Fund indicate a 2.2 billion shortfall of syringes for different volumes. One of the affected volumes is the 0.3 ml auto-disposable syringes that are needed for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination.
To date, 120 health workers have succumbed to the COVID-19 since March 2020. The majority of the doctors died during the second wave between May and June.
Decolus Kiiza, the FUFA Deputy CEO in charge of Football says that players have either received their first COVID-19 jab while others are fully vaccinated in a bid to limit the spread of the virus.
With over 500,000 people already fully vaccinated in the country, as many as 7,138,920 million Ugandans could be fully vaccinated by the end of 2021.Vaccinating this number of people could lead to the full lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown where bars, discotheques, schools, theaters and music shows still remain closed according to the President
According to the findings, Moderna offers 93 percent protection against COVID-19 hospitalisations compared to Pfizer's 88 percent. Ugandan health officials say that the difference in levels of protection should not be a cause of worry
Uganda received 300,000 doses of Sinovac in July as a donation from China, and the jabs were subsequently ringfenced for teachers who had not been vaccinated. According to the health ministry, the vaccines meant for teachers have all been used up, with Kampala recording up to 200,000 vaccinations in this category.
