Uganda has received a total of 196,800 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine procured with funding from the Government of Uganda.
The consignment was officially received by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Diana Atwine, officials from the National Medical Stores at the Entebbe international Airport.
The consignment is part of the phased deliveries of the nine million doses of Johnson and Johnson government procured.
Another batch of 1.2 million doses of the same vaccine will arrive in the country by the end of next month.
Unlike other Vaccines where a recipient receives two doses, Johnson and Johnson is a single shot Vaccine.
According to Atwiine, the vaccine is very effective, and it has gone through the entire process of verification and registration.
Government procured the doses through the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) initiative.
Atwiine said that Uganda has received 5,690,363 doses of Vaccines of various types and they include, Johnson and Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Moderna and Pfizer Vaccine.
She said, “At this point availability to the population continues, therefore there is need to now speed up vaccination, at first we were a bit slow because we didn’t want to create that high for people to come and demand for Vaccine which we didn’t have.”
Atwiine said, with the vaccines, they are going to raise voices to make sure more people get vaccinated before the third wave strikes.
She noted that they want to open up the Vaccination campaign to the public, and in places that attract large gatherings.
Atwiine urged the public to be vigilant, go get vaccinated since the vaccines are adequate.
“Every person should go get the jab, we have adequate vaccines and we expect more Vaccines in the country, therefore there is no reason to worry that people will be turned down,” Atwiine said.
So far the country has administered 2,282,414 doses while 2,085,094 doses are being distributed country wide.
“Of the administered doses 1,704,279 people have so far received the first dose while about 600000 have received their second doses,” Atwiine said.
Government has released a total of 120 billion shillings to the ministry of health to procure Vaccines.
55.8 billion was disbursed as part of the payment of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines and additionally 50.4 billion was released to procure 2.06 million doses of Sinopharm Vaccine as part of the earlier orders made.
Atwiine said the ministry of health is in the process of transferring the remaining funds to cater for the remaining doses as per the ministry’s order.