An additional 196,800 covid -19 vaccine doses of the Johnson and Johnson type have arrived in the country .
The consignment officially received by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr.DianaAtwine among other ministry officials and National Medical Store (NMS) staff headed by Executive Director Mr. Moses Kamabare.
The consignment arrives when the country has stepped up the covid vaccination effort and so far at least 2,058,553 Ugandans have taken the COVID vaccine jab representing about 2.3% of the population.
Uganda is averaging about 29,633 doses administered each day. At that rate, it will take a further 299 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population. The vaccines were delivered aboard Brussels Airlines, which torched down at Entebbe International Airport and Dr. Diana Atwine says that another batch of 1.2 million doses of the same vaccine will arrive in the country by the end of next month. She says that more people will now have access to COVID-19 vaccination because of the delivery of the additional vaccines.
Atwine explains that since March, Uganda has received 5,690,363 doses of various vaccines including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sinovac, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson. Of these doses, 2.2 million have been administered, whereby 1.7 million people have got their first jab while nearly 600,000 have gotten two doses. Since people get only one shot for Johnson and Johnson vaccine, Atwine is optimistic that it will attract a high turn up across the country.
She adds that the ministry is set to open vaccination sites at places that attract large gatherings such as religious centres and markets.
Atwine says the government released Shillings 120 billion to buy vaccines. Shillings 55.8billion was released to buy 9 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The doses are being procured through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust-AVAT. AVAT was launched last November by the African Union with support from Africa CDC and Afrexim bank among others to ensure widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.
