Govt to resume Covid vaccination on Monday

The government has said it will resume countrywide Covid-19 vaccination on Monday next week, and that people who are due for the second dose and health workers will be prioritised. 

The government halted the exercise last week after the 964,000 doses of the vaccine, which were received through global sharing initiative–Covax and the Indian government, got finished.

Dr Alfred Driwale, the head of immunisation programme at the Ministry of Health, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the 175,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at hand will not be enough for the priority groups. The vaccines were donated by the French government on June 17. 

“The doses which districts will receive will be based on the number of people who are due for the second dose. The doses are not enough for those who are due for the second dose but more doses are coming in July and August,” Dr Driwale said.

More than 322,000 people are due for the second round, according to the head of immunisation programme. 
By June 18, only 57,797 people  had received both the first and second.

The second round increases protection for recipients from severe illness and deaths by another 30 per cent (from 62-92 per cent), according to information from government scientists.

Dr Driwale said the interval between doses has been fixed at 12 weeks (three months) apart. 
But earlier in May, the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, said vaccine recipients can come for the second dose after completing eight weeks, but that they recommended interval is 8-12 weeks. 

Dr Driwale didn’t explain why receiving the second dose has been fixed at 12 weeks.  “We are also going to prioritise healthcare workers who are increasingly getting infected so as to protect the health system [from collapsing]. We will vaccinate [even] those health workers who are coming for the first dose,” he said.

Dr Richard Idro, the president of Uganda Medical Association, on Tuesday said more than 2,500 health workers have been infected amid rising numbers of deaths of the personnel.

Participants
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, said in a tweet: “In Kampala, it [vaccination] will be conducted by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) health workers. Each division will have eight vaccination centres within a walking distance.” 

It is unclear why UPDF is coming in because hospitals have health workers who can vaccinate.

Issues of late delivery of vaccines and non-payment of allowance of health workers who are doing vaccination have been cited in the first rollout as key factors that affected the drive. 

But the National Medical Stores spokesperson, Ms Sheila Nduhukire, said they started distributing the vaccines and to districts at the weekend.