The National Medical Stores (NMS) has said that its planning to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to districts and next week, districts will be expected to have received doses and vaccination commences.
This comes after the Ministry received additional donation of 586,080 doses of vaccines two days ago which comprised 286,080 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the Norwegian government and 300,000 doses of Sinovac from the Chinese governments.
Ms Sheila Nduhukire, the spokesperson for NMS, explained the process they are taking before vaccination.
“We are finalising distribution of personal protective equipment for health workers, then we will start the process of dispatching vaccines across the country. By next week, districts shall have received their doses.” She said.
The vaccines from Norway will expire on September 30, according to the Ministry.
The State Minister for Health in charge of General Duties, Ms Anifa Kawooya, said they still have much to discuss before the rollout but that the vaccination will likely “resume next week.”
The Ministry confirmed the AstraZeneca vaccine is due to expire on September 30, meaning the country has less than 2 months to exhaust the doses before expiry. But the 286,080 doses at hand are two few for the 902,992 people who are due for the second dose of vaccine. The Ministry has vaccinated a total of 1,143,763 people with either one or two doses.
Prof David Sserwadda, the head of scientists advising the government on vaccine access and deployment, said people who are due for second dose will not get Sinovac. “We don’t have any data on efficacy and side effects of mixing Sinovac with AstraZeneca at this point in time,” he said.
The president on Friday said that school going children between the age of 14-18 should be considered for vaccination and earlier on threatened that teachers who are not vaccinated will not qualify for teaching.
