Spotlight: 'Funds released for Covid-19 activities were well utilised'
News
Senior officials from the Ministry of Health have explained that money that was contributed by Ugandans to aid in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic is still intact contrary to rumours that it was stolen.
The remarks were made during NBS TV's Spotlight show which is aired every Monday night.
Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health said that such malicious allegations against the Ministry officials who are among frontline workers demonises their will and dedication to serve the nation during this pandemic.
She explained that the money contributed by Ugandans will be used to buy cars and also build two regional hospitals.
"We should not tie our feet down by all the negativity. We call upon you to support us to provide services and trust in us. We have competent health workers and we need to be proud of ourselves and know that the health sector is rising and shining,"she noted.
The donated vehicles, Atwine said, had been dispatched them to various health centres adding that claims that Covid-19 donations were stolen is not true.
"For me, theft is an abomination. We are led by the Public Finance Management Act. We are guided by law. We received Shs 29 billion which was sent to the Consolidated Fund. When Parliament reconvened, a supplementary budget was passed,"she noted.
She said her ministry got the money last week to buy vehicles for which the president made the call for.
"We have regulators who are supposed to follow up and investigate any complaints about the health sector. Criminal offences are investigated by the police,"she said.
The Director General Health Service in the Ministry of Health, Dr Henry Mwebesa said that to date, the ministry has immunised about 110,000 people against Covid-19.
"The uptake is still very low even if we lowered the age group from over 70 to over 50.The Covid-19 problem is still there. When you hear what is happening in other countries, we still have reason to be worried and cautious,"he noted.
He noted that the people immunising against measles can also immunise against Covid-19 adding that they just need little training to ensure effectiveness.
"We are working on decentralising the vaccination process. We have a dedicated committee monitoring the vaccination process for side effects.The ones that have been reported so far are minor problems of headache which we have handled,"said Mwebesa.
Mwebesa said they anticipate to receive about 2 million doses from the COVAX facility in May saying that this consignment will be here on time for all the people who have already gotten vaccinated to get a second dose.
