Uganda receives 580,000 doses of Covid vaccine from China, Norway

Uganda on Saturday received two batches of Covid-19 vaccines totaling to 580,000 does to bolster government efforts in vaccinating the population.

Of the 580,000 does, 286,080 doses were of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a donation from the Government of Norway whereas the remaining 300,000 of the Sinovac vaccine are a donation by the Chinese government.

This supplements the initial 1,139,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that Uganda received in March and June 2021. People who are due for their second does can begin to smile because they will be receiving their second jabs beginning Monday, “Dr.Jane Ruth Aceng said as she received the vaccines.

With only 902,992 people vaccinated so far with the first dose and 240,771 having completed the second dose of the targeted 22 million, the minister said more efforts are needed to ensure government beats the target.

“This points to a widening gap of individuals due for the second does and the larger Ugandan population that needs to be inoculated yet we have inadequate vaccines in the country,” she said.

The minister said government will in the coming days be identifying groups of people to receive the Sinovac vaccine from China.

Aceng applauded the Norwegian and Chinese governments for supporting Uganda’s efforts to have the population vaccinated against the deadly Coronavirus.

The Chinese Ambassador to Uganda, Zhang Lizhong and his Norwegian counterpart, Arne Haug applauded Uganda for her efforts in fighting the pandemic.

The vaccines were later handed over to the Uganda Medical Store for storage.

Uganda has in the past received 864,000 doses of Covid vaccine from the World Health Organisation, 100,000 doses from India and 175200 doses from France.

The development comes a day after government partially lifted the 42-day lockdown after a reduction in Covid infections registered by the country daily.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, Uganda has had 93927 cumulative Covid cases since March 2020 but 83115 of these have fully recovered.

As of July 29, the country has also registered  2690 Covid deaths since March last year.