Covid-19: MPs to be vaccinated starting Thursday
A health worker administers AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to Health Minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng recently. MPs and all parliament staff are expected to be vaccinated on Thursday and Friday. PHOTO | KELVIN ATUHAIRE
What you need to know:
- The exercise that is expected to end on Friday, was communicated by the speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga on the floor of parliament on Tuesday.
The Ministry Of Health will Thursday start vaccinating current Members of Parliament, MPs-elect, and all parliament staff against Covid-19.
The exercise that is expected to end on Friday, was communicated by the speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga on the floor of parliament on Tuesday.
“The health ministry has arranged for vaccination of MPs of the 10th and 11th Parliaments and staff against Covid-19, on Thursday and Friday this week,” the Speaker said.
The Ministry will need about 1000 doses to cover the 457 current members, MPs elect and over 400 staff according to acting director of communication Ms Helen Kawesa.
Uganda commenced a vaccination exercise against Covid-19 on March 10 with health workers.
Currently, Uganda has received a total of 964,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Of these 700,000 doses are for health workers and teachers. Daily Monitor on March 17 learnt that 100,000 doses have been distributed to security forces (army, police, and prisons)
As of March 21, 23,527 people had been vaccinated.
Dr Alfred Driwale, the head of immunisation at the ministry said they resolved to roll out all the doses available for the first shot, as the country awaits another consignment in May that will be used to administer the second dose. Each individual is given two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to Dr Driwale, those who receive the first dose can wait for up to three months before the next dose, according to new evidence.
“Instead of giving half the population, we decided to deploy all these vaccines for the first dose. A single shot is very effective in reducing severe disease and death. By these considerations, more doses have become available and we are able to expand the categories,” Dr Driwale said.
