The health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng reveals that taking shots of the covid19 vaccine does not give guarantee that a person is 100% protected from catching the virus again.
According to Dr. Aceng, the vaccine only keeps a person away from the acute condition in case they contracted the virus again.
With the country expecting the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine totaling to 400 doses on 5th march 2021, government is confident that by mid-march this year, 400,000 doses will have arrived in the country to vaccinate frontline workers among them, Health workers, security personnel, teachers and later other groups in a staggering manner.
She further notes that vaccination will only take place in public health facilities to avoid misuse and imposing costs on citizens.
The vaccination being voluntary, citizens to take shots will have to sign consent forms before taking their shots as this will help provide follow up and make it easy for the government and the manufacturer to trace the victims in the process of gathering data since its being studied.
According to the WHO country representative in Uganda Tedros signing a consent form by the person taking the shot is not only in Uganda but in all countries where the vaccine is going to be used and its upon this point that he urges Ugandan to feel free to vaccinate against the pandemic.
With 45 million doses needed to vaccinate the targeted population, around 21.9 million (49.6%) of the population are to be vaccinated in a phased manner targeting people aged 18 and above. And this includes pregnant women, people with underlying health illnesses, the elderly among others.
The minister further notes that though Uganda is to receive vaccine donations from Covax (3.5m) from China (300,000) among other donors the already set budget totaling to over UGX.582 billion is likely to shoot due to unforeseen matters.
With vaccination starting 10th March 2021 in public health facilities, few of the selected frontline workers will receive the first shot and later receive the second after eight to twelve weeks.
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