Africa-Press – Uganda. Local leaders in Lira District have expressed dissatisfaction over the few doses of AstraZeneca vaccines allocated to them.
On Tuesday, the National Medical Stores (NMS) delivered 3,000 doses of AstraZeneca jabs, which will be shared equally by the two administrative units. But leaders in Lira City and Lira District are saying the doses are just a drop of water in an Ocean because they had requested for at least 11,000 doses.
Dr Benard Otucu, the Lira City principal medical officer, said the doses would be shared equally between Lira City and the district with each administrative unit getting 1,500 doses.
He said the priority would go to people who are coming for the second dose and teachers because the government wants to reopen schools soon.
“We want to encourage all teachers to come for the vaccination. But if a teacher from another district like Kwania comes, we find it very hard to segregate them yet the doses are very few,” Dr Otucu said.
“People are fighting for the vaccine. The uptake is very high and these 3,000 doses will take only one or two days,” he added.
The principal medical officer said during the launch of the Covid-19 vaccination in March, Lira City and district received 9,000 doses. That time, he said, the targeted groups were health workers, security forces, the elderly and people with underlying conditions.
“When few people responded because of the disinformation about the vaccine at that time, the restriction was lifted and 7,000 got the first dose and only 2,000 completed their second dose,” Dr Otucu said.
He said 3,000 new doses will be distributed to five vaccination centres in Lira City. They are Lira Regional Referral Hospital, Lira University Teaching Hospital, Ober and Boroboro health centre IIIs, and LPC Health Centre IV. In Lira District, the vaccination centre will be at Amach and Ogur health centre IVs.
Lira City mayor Sam Atul said : “We are going to be in trouble because we have already informed our people that there are vaccines. So, they will be rushing and fighting to get vaccinated, but they will not be able to get it.”
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Lira ssistant chief administrative officer, Mr Denis Otim Otto, said the European countries are still hoarding the Covid-19 vaccines. “In Europe people are watching football matches in stadiums because they have vaccinated their people. But they are still skeptical while selling vaccines to African countries,” Mr Otim said.
