Health Centre IIIs to receive Covid vaccines

A vial containing the Covid-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca at the Robert Bosch hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. Uganda will receive the first consignment of Covid-19 donations today. PHOTO/AFP

What you need to know:

  •  Dr Ruth Jane Aceng, the Health minister, said the doses are enough for the first dose for all teachers.
  • On Tuesday, Dr Aceng said they had commenced training of vaccinators.

Uganda will receive its first consignment of Covid-19 donations from COVAX Facility, a UN agency, today at 2.55pm,  the Health ministry has said.

 Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, in a telephone interview yesterday said the ministry would receive 864,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and hand them over to National Medical Stores (NMS).
 “NMS will be responsible for distributing since they have cold rooms where we keep vaccines and cold chain trucks for transportation. We have refrigerators,” Dr Atwine said.

Transportation
 Mr Moses Kamabare, the general manager of NMS, said not more than three cold chain trucks are needed to transport the vaccines from the airport to NMS.  The NMS team will internally decide on the trucks and delivery points.
 “The Covid-19 vaccines will be delivered the same way we have always delivered all other vaccines to government health facilities. This is because the vaccine type has the same storage temperature of two to eight degrees Centigrade, which is the same as all of our regular vaccines,” Mr Kamabare said yesterday.

Dr Atwine said the distribution list of vaccines is being finalised although they will move the vaccines up to health centre III.
 Mr Kamabare said all health facilities are expected to have adequate storage facilities for the vaccines, adding that the quantities are not large and this would be for a short time.

 “The demand for the vaccines is enough for them not to go to waste. Distribution will start immediately. All is already set on our part,” he said.
 Distribution of the vaccines is set to kick off at the weekend, according to Ministry of Health.
Both the vaccination and launch will commence on March 10, with the first priority being health workers followed by teachers. Others are security personnel, the elderly, and those aged between 18 and 50,but with underlying health conditions.

The vaccination
 Dr Ruth Jane Aceng, the Health minister, said the doses are enough for the first dose for all teachers.
 The Health ministry has designated health centres III, IVs, district hospitals, regional referral, national referral hospitals and specialised institutions as vaccination service points in each district and city.
Each person is to receive two doses of Covid-19 vaccine and will be given eight weeks apart, although this can be extended to 12 weeks as recommended by World Health Organisation strategic advisory group.

 On Tuesday, Dr Aceng said they had commenced training of vaccinators.  “The training and supervisors will in turn train the frontline health workers who will administer the vaccines. The following trainers are being trained, national level 50, regional level 145 and district level 145,” Dr Aceng said.
In order to prevent theft of vaccines, the Uganda People’s Defence Force and police are finalising the security arrangements from the national to sub-county level, according to Ministry of Health.