Ugandans urged to embrace Covid vaccination

The Permanent Secretary at the Health ministry, Dr Diana Atwine, has urged Ugandans to go for Covid-19 vaccination and reduce their risk of contracting the virus.

Dr Atwine told this publication yesterday that some hospitals had registered some Covid-19 cases and that it was pertinent for Ugandans to guard themselves against the disease.

“I don’t have the details as of how many cases have been recorded in the past few days, but I know that of late, we have been getting some cases. First of all, we need to live in the new normal. We are not going to be in epidemic response as it was before,”Dr Atwine said last evening.

“What we need to do now is to take personal responsibility and ensure that people get vaccinated and those who were fully-vaccinated get a booster jab since our immunity gets weaker after some time,” she added.

She further explained that those who were vaccinated a year ago are now prone to getting infected if exposed.

“Covid-19 is here like any other country, Uganda is not unique. So many countries are experiencing the upsurge of the infection but I think for now, we have to treat it as a severe flu but prevention is to ensure that people get boosted and vaccinated,” she emphasised.

She also cautioned Ugandans from being reluctant and deliberately refusing to get vaccinated.

“Even now, we have patients in hospitals and we see that those who are coming with severe disease are those ones who were not vaccinated,” she said.

She said some of the patients were admitted in intensive care units of some hospitals including Mulago and Soroti.

“These numbers might increase. We encourage as many people as they can to get boosted and vaccinated because that is the only sure way they will be protected against Covid-19,” she said.