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March 31, 2021

Kogi agrees to accept COVID-19 vaccine doses

Uganda will import five million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines next month after the discovery of new COVID-19 variants in the country, President Yoweri Museveni has said. In a televised address to the nation late Friday, Museveni said the vaccines will be used to vaccinate at least 80 per cent of the 5.5 million elderly. People below 50 years, with underlying medical conditions that are at high risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, will also be vaccinated. Uganda targets to vaccinate more than 21.9 million people who face the highest risk of the infection, including the health workers, teachers, social workers and security personnel, elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. “The government is working hard to ensure we bring another five million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine before the end of May to complete the threshold vaccination and ensure that those vaccinated before getting the second booster dose,’’ said Museveni. “Vaccines are the most effective intervention we have against COVID-19. “The government and partners are working hard to bring vaccines to most adult Ugandans to protect them and to support us to reopen the economy and get back all our children to school.’’ Henry Mwebesa, Director-General of Health Services, last week said Uganda is scheduled to receive some two million more doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines in May through the COVAX facility. Uganda has so far received 964,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX vaccine sharing programme and the Indian government. As of April 16, a total of 220,893 people had been inoculated with the first jab of AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, according to the Ministry of Health statistics. The country has reported the emergence of the highly transmissible COVID-19 variants which were first reported in Britain, South Africa and Nigeria. The ministry’s data showed that as of April 16, Uganda had registered a cumulative total of 41,340 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 40,898 recoveries and 338 deaths.

Begins rollout this week

By Gabriel Olawale

Three weeks after Nigeria began inoculating eligible Nigerians with the COVID-19 vaccine, Kogi state is finally set to start administering the vaccine to residents.

Saka Haruna, the state commissioner for health, said the state will receive doses of the vaccine today and begin rollout thereafter. Haruna said the state was set to start the vaccination rollout.

“We have done the microplanning and everything has been completed with the NPHCDA.”

He said anyone willing to receive the vaccine would receive it and that nobody will be forced to be vaccinated.

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Haruna said further plans would be announced about the vaccination rollout when the vaccine doses are supplied.

Yahaya Bello, the Kogi state government had repeatedly denied the existence of COVID-19 in Kogi, saying the vaccination is among their least concerns.

Bello and the ED/CEO NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, met on Monday to discuss the development around the cold chain for vaccine storage and provision of security at the state’s cold store.

Earlier, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, had said vaccine supplies to Kogi were delayed as a result of what they described as the state’s concerns around the contradictory information about the vaccines, and the non-repair of its cold-chain store.

Vanguard News Nigeria

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