Government has called upon the private sector to rally the masses to vaccinate against the deadly Covid- 19 pandemic for other sectors like bars to be opened and the curfew lifted.
During her weekly media briefing Minister of Information, Ms. Judith Nabakooba said that President Yoweri Museveni had in his recent address to the nation provided a simple road map that will help most of the closed sectors to reopen.
“For those who want bars to reopen and curfew to be suspended, all you have to do is show up and get vaccinated,” Nabakooba stressed while noting that the number of people who have showed up for vaccination is still very low.
According to Ministry of Health figures, Nabakooba said that only 10% of 5M people in the risk category of 50 years and above, together with those having underlying health conditions have been vaccinated so far.
When u add other categories such as medical workers, security, teachers, social workers there are an estimated 21 million Ugandans who have to be vaccinated before government can open up the entire economy .
Last week President Museveni said that at least 80% of the risk categories of people have to vaccinate before the restricted sectors of the economy can be reopened. There has been increasing demand from Ugandans to open up the entertainment industry and suspend the curfew that was imposed more than a year ago.
But Nabakooba said that the job of mobilizing and educating people about vaccination should not be left to government alone. “All private sector players including the artists, (musicians) need to come out now and use their spaces to call upon the public to embrace the vaccination.
There has been a lot of misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine. This could explain the low turn up at most of the vaccination Centers,” she explained.
There has been increasing demand from Ugandans to open up the entertainment industry and suspend the curfew that was imposed more than a year ago.
The Minister said the vaccines have been approved by government and WHO the reason why President Museveni, the First Lady Janet, the Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi and the Nabageleka have all been vaccinated.
Scientists say there has also been an increase in reported cases of covid in the months of March and first week of April with a total of 130 cases were reported. Since last week the number of reported cases has doubled to 260 cases.
During the first wave, over 40,000 cases of the disease were reported with 337 deaths.
