LoP Mpuuga praises Museveni over new stance on vaccines

The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga has praised government for heeding advice from the opposition on procuring vaccines directly from manufacturers other than relying only on donations from the Covax facility.

During his address last week, President Museveni said that he had directed the ministries of Health and Finance to urgently secure vaccines for Ugandans from the manufacturers.

Due to the hoarding of vaccines by the international countries, Museveni said that Uganda is embarking on its own vaccine manufacturing capacity adding that to-date, three candidate vaccines are at different stages of trial.

Mpuuga said that purchasing the drugs for Ugandans directly from the manufacturers would be a good move taken by the government.

"The incessant denials as to the availability of Covid-19 vaccines on the open market to international organisations and the governments have at last been dropped as president Museveni debunks the denials,"he said.

“We are glad that at long last, they [government] have woken up from their slumber and taken the path that countries like Kenya, Botswana, Egypt, and South Africa among others took to procure vaccines for their citizens," he noted.

As of Friday last week, a total of 1,139,260 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered to the population countrywide; 902,293 people have received the 1st dose while 233,950 have received the second dose.

The government is using a multi- pronged approach to secure adequate vaccines for the target population of 22 million, 18 years and above, according to the president.

Museveni said an order of 2 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines has been made with the African Union and a down payment of $ 3 million effected and the delivery will begin this month.