US injects Shs94b in Uganda’s Covid fight

President Museveni has called on the Ministry of Health to increase efforts to ensure 22 million Ugandans are fully-vaccinated against Covid-19 to guarantee the recovery of the economy.
Mr Museveni, in a statement released by State House Yesterday, asked the Ministry to provide informed sensitisation messages to the public and encourage mass vaccination.
“We said 22 million people should either have got two doses of the other vaccines or one of Johnson and Johnson. Then a booster for those of my constituency 50 years and above. In my constituency, there are about 3.5 million, plus security personnel, teachers, health workers, boda bodas, bar maids/workers etc. This comes to more than six million people for the booster. Let the people know,” he said.

The President made the remarks at a meeting with US ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown during which she announced a USA financial support of $27million (Shs94b) to Uganda’s vaccination efforts.
“I thank the USA government for this contribution. The USA is a friendly country. Our relatives (The Black people) in the USA now are about 45 million there. The American government works with us in many areas. We share the same position against terrorism because of our own experience here. We are a frontline state against organic terrorists. I am very happy that they have made this contribution,” he said.

This information comes a week after the Ministry revealed that more than 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines are lying idle at National Medical Stores. 
The Ministry has received about 36 million doses of different types of vaccines through donations and direct procurement.
The ministry had also revealed that although the remaining vaccines will expire by May, some of the 25 million doses of vaccines given to districts were yet to be exhausted as the country grapples with low uptake.
The President also said in the statement that the message about children aged 12 years and above (about 6million) who are eligible for vaccination should be emphasised.

Those vaccinated
Ms Anifa Kawooya Bangirana, the State minister for Health-in-charge of General Duties, in the statement said so far 13.5 million have got the first dose and while 7.4 million are fully-vaccinated.
“We still have over 8.7million people who are not yet vaccinated and 6.1 million who are partially vaccinated. We welcome the support from the American government which is our biggest vaccine donor and urge them to align their funding with government’s vaccination plan of 2022 for a successful exercise,” she said.
Ms Brown said the US aims to increase vaccination efforts globally to at least have 70 percent of the countries populations vaccinated by end of December.
Ms Brown said Uganda was chosen following its successful vaccination awareness campaign.

“After the Delta variant, working together, we re-invigorated efforts to get people vaccinated and raise awareness. This made quite a difference and that is why Uganda was chosen for this initiative. The success of that effort made us realise that if we intensify what we are doing we can reach that target by September,” she said.
Adding: “We have a total of S$27million and we are already in discussions with the Ministry of Health to see what is needed in terms of logistics and all it takes to get shots into the arms of Ugandans so that people can go back to activities and engagements that we enjoyed before the pandemic that has affected us all.” 

Earlier us donations 
According to the website of  US Embassy in Uganda, the Washington delivered 1,684,800 more doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Uganda last month. Combined with previous donations, the United States has provided Uganda more than 11 million Covid-19 vaccine doses.
In addition to vaccine donations, the United States earlier provided assistance valued at more than $122 million to support Uganda’s Covid-19 response. 
In support of Uganda’s national vaccine rollout, the United States has provided technical and financial support in data management, risk communication, health worker training, human resources support, supply chain strengthening, and cold storage capacity.