Delays slow down Pfizer jabs take-off in Kampala, Wakiso

The government yesterday started inoculating Ugandans with the American-made Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine amid low turn up and late delivery of the jabs at designated vaccination centres.

The vaccine, which is being used to for mass inoculation in the country for the first time, is being administered in Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono districts to keep it at the required temperatures to guarantee its efficacy.

The exercise began at about midday, four hours after its scheduled start time, and many people left over the delays.

Health officials in Kampala and Wakiso said they got vaccines late from National Medical Stores (NMS) but its spokesperson, Ms Sheila Nduhukire, said they delivered vaccines to districts at 7am.

At St Paul’s Church Okuvu in Mbuya, a vaccination centre in a city suburb, by 10am, 35 out of out of 60 people queued to wait for the jab as the rest, mainly health workers and government officials superintending the exercise, looked on.

Guard’s dilemma

Ms Melda Amaniyo, a security guard, who had come for the vaccine, said she was tossed from one designated centre to another by health workers because they didn’t have Pfizer vaccines.

“I stay in Mbuya, Kinawataka. This morning I moved to Naguru Hospital so when we reached, we spent 30 minutes  [waiting] then the nurses told us that they don’t have the doses and they told us to go to Kyambogo University,” she said.

She added: “Then another person also said there is vaccination at Kiswa Hospital [in Bugolobi], another city outskirt]; so, I rushed there and we spent another 30 minutes and they again told us [that] they didn’t have the vaccines. So, we were left in a dilemma. I am now at Okuvu Church where they directed me. I am waiting, but I am not sure when they will start vaccination.”

Ms Amaniyo’s predicament was not isolated. About six kilometres away, at Mandela National Stadium Namboole in Bweyogerere, Ms Elizabeth Atim said like many others, she was scorched by yesterday’s searing temperatures before getting a Pfizer jab.

“The vaccines were delivered at midday after waiting for them since morning. They told us to wait in a pavilion and the sun baked us. Then they finally gave us consent forms to sign, but I did not read it because I was tired,” Ms Atim said.

“They bunched us into a group of 40s. Again, we waited for close to another hour as the nurses searched for, and organised, a work station. After, they gave me the jab, there was no stamp and I had to wait again,” she added.

Daily Monitor witnessed many individuals leaving the vaccination centres in frustration and disbelief due to delayed delivery of the vaccines.  

This despair and logistical nightmare came to the fore on a day planned by the government as essential in its efforts to ramp up vaccination for the targeted 4.8 million mainly priority and vulnerable Ugandans. 

Only 1.8 million people have been vaccinated since the exercise started on March 10 using AstraZeneca and then Sinovac, but majority have received one of the two required jabs, meaning they possess half the immunity afforded by the vaccine. 

Mr Erico Mukwano, the health inspector at Nakawa Division ,who was coordinating the exercise at Okuvu Church, told this newspaper at around 10:20am that he was not sure when the vaccines would arrive, but urged patience.

Dr Christopher Oundo, a KCCA official who is coordinating the exercise in Nakawa Division, said the exercise could not begin earlier because they received the vaccines late at City Hall.  

“The supplies were released late from National Medical Stores because the new vaccine requires special temperatures. They couldn’t dispatch it yesterday to our stores so that we use what they have brought. They had to be released from the [cold-chain] truck; so, the process was longer than we anticipated,” he said.

The government received a donation of 1.6 million doses of Pfizer last week from the United States of America and earmarked them for use in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono due to logistical challenges in cold-chain storage and delivery.

The vaccines require very low storage temperature, -80 degrees centigrade, and at the point of administering, it must be kept at between 2 to 8 degrees centigrade for it to remain effective.  

A visit to Kibuli Demonstration School at about 1:50pm, another vaccination site in Kampala, found that the vaccination had just started.

Gideon Mazinga, 26, who spoke to this newspaper a few minutes after taking the jab, said the vaccines arrived at around midday although he had come  early morning. 

Ms Juliet Namaganda, an official from Makindye Division, who was coordinating the exercise at Kibuli Demonstration School, confirmed this.

Mr Mazinga said: “When I came to receive my first jab, the dose of Pfizer, the process looked to not be moving on well because they delayed to deliver the vaccine but we thank God that at around midday, the vaccination team delivered the vaccines.”

“I appeal to the vaccination team not to make people sit for too long [before receiving the vaccine]. We make time to receive the vaccine. If they keep time, people will feel okay to leave their work place and come for vaccination,” he added.

He appealed to Ugandans to get vaccinated and ignore the myths about vaccines.

Ms Namaganda said they expect to start the vaccination at about 8am today.

“We had wanted to start as early as 7am, but because we received the vaccines and relevant logistics like needles to administer [yesterday] morning, it was difficult to manage time,” she said.

Ms Namaganda said the other causes of the delay are that the Pfizer vaccines also needs to be diluted before it is administered unlike AstraZeneca which is administered straight away, adding that this takes time.  

Dr Mathias Lugoloobi, the Wakiso District health officer, admitted that the exercise started late due to the late arrival of the vaccines. 

 He said they received 200,490 doses of Pfizer, which is slightly below the 350,000 that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) said it received.

But Ms Nduhukire said: “NMS [yesterday] morning dispatched the first consignment of Pfizer vaccines and we delivered those vaccines as early as 7am to the districts of Mukono, Wakiso and Kampala as guided by the Ministry of Health.”  She said they will replenish the district stores as and when need arises.

Why people are coming for pfizer

A sexagenarian, who identified herself only by one name as Florence, and had turned up for vaccination at Okuvu Church, said she had been weighing the right type of vaccine to go for.  “I read the information about efficacy of vaccines, AstraZeneca is around 60 and Pfizer is over 90, so when I heard that the vaccine had come to Uganda, I made sure I get vaccinated,” she said.

At Kibuli, Gideon Mazinga said he was skeptical about AstraZeneca because of cases of blood clots that were reported in foreign countries about its recipients.  “I think Pfizer is safer; that is why I have come for it,” he said. Earlier, Ms Melda Amaniyo said she was not sure about the type of vaccine she was coming to get, but needed a jab. “There is a lot of pressure at work place for people to get vaccinated and also, many people have succumbed to Covid-19,” she said.

[email protected]