Ugandan president urges intensive inoculation as COVID-19 vaccines to expire

By XINHUA

A man walks past a banner advertising Uganda’s vaccination program. March 10, 2021. /Getty Images

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday called for massive mobilization for the inoculation of priority groups before 67,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses donated to the country expire at the end of September.

The 4.8 million people in the priority groups include health workers, teachers, security personnel, elderly persons of 50 and above, people who are already ill, and 330,000 students in post-secondary institutions.

The president directed government representatives at the local level, chief administrative officers and district health officers to ensure that the priority groups are vaccinated.

“They should, in addition, ensure that no vaccines are wasted or left to expire,” Museveni said, warning that in any district where vaccines expire, the responsible officials will be dismissed from their jobs.

Uganda has over 2.2 million doses of vaccines available at the National Medical Stores out of 11.9 million doses expected to arrive in the country by the end of December, according to Museveni.

As of Wednesday, over 1.7 million doses had been administered since the vaccination exercise started in March, according to the health ministry.

The country aims to vaccinate about 22 million people or nearly half the population.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *