Staff, students of Victoria University embrace vaccination exercise

Following the rise in the cases of Covid-19 in the country, Victoria University has taken up a lead to vaccinate all its students and the staff against the pandemic as a primary responsibility to keep its stakeholders healthy.

The university management had announced that staff members who miss out on the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination at the premises risk losing their jobs.

Dr. Lawrence Muganga, the acting Vice-Chancellor, Victoria University, said that students and staff overwhelmingly embraced the vaccination exercise adding that by doing so, they chose to create a safe learning community for themselves.

He said they don’t want to see the institution closed because of the rising cases of Covid-19.

"We are having different schools closing, different universities are having huge cases, so we don’t want to go to that level. We are saying to mitigate the risks, we had to heed to the call of the government of Uganda, the Ministry of Health. We had to encourage our people to get vaccinated and we have really received overwhelming response from staff and students," he said.

He stated that it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that the people they work with are safe.

“Their health, before even you talk about education, is a priority to us. When you have everyone vaccinated, it means they are getting safer, they are making their families safer, they are making the community where they come from safer," he said.

Muganga called upon students and staff who have not yet been vaccinated to get their Covid-19 jab as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Health has organised a mass Covid-19 vaccination camp at Kololo Independence Grounds to increase access to vaccine and tame Covid-19 surge.

The country started Covid-19 vaccination in March after receiving 964,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through the global sharing initiative –Covax and the Indian government.

Currently, there is a surge in Covid-19 infections and hospitalisation as the country experiences the second wave of the pandemic.