Covid vaccine rollout plan altered

By Elizabeth Kamurungi

Ugandans who have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will have to wait a little longer for the second dose, following the health ministry’s decision to use all available doses for the first dose.

Initially, the ministry’s plan was to vaccinate 482,000 people using the first batch of the 964,000 vaccines so far received. An individual is supposed to get two doses of AstraZeneca within 8-12 weeks apart.

Dr Alfred Driwale, the assistant commissioner for immunisation says the country awaits another consignment in May which will be used to administer the second phase.

Meanwhile, according to the BBC, the European Commission president says vaccine producer AstraZeneca must “catch up” on its promised deliveries to the EU before exporting doses elsewhere.

Ursula von der Leyen says the company… has to honour the contract it has with member states. She spoke after EU leaders held a summit to discuss vaccine supplies.

This also comes just a day after India temporarily suspended vaccine exports as the government gives priority to an expansion of its domestic immunization campaign, a move that threatens to disrupt the distribution of doses to the developing world.

India’s biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, has been supplying millions of doses of AstraZeneca PLC’s vaccine to countries around the world including Uganda, as well as Covax, the United Nations-backed effort to provide vaccines to poor countries.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna