Africa-Press – Uganda. Right from the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, President Museveni made several promises and development of home-based Covid-19 vaccines and drugs was one of them.
The promise about Covid-19 drugs has partly been delivered because we already have Covidex and Covylice-1 which are being used, but they are yet to undergo clinical trials to prove their effectiveness as required in medical field. To date, the lead scientists behind the two remedies are still waiting for the government funds.
The President said on June 27 that locally developed Covid-19 vaccines shall be ready by end of 2021. Our view is that the government should get serious and make all efforts to deliver this promise and the factory for the vaccines should be set up by availing the $70m (Shs248.4b) to finance the construction.
The government should also harness the expertise of other scientists at Makerere University and National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) who have developed vaccines for use in animals as the technologies for vaccine development are almost the same.
Whereas the efforts by the Ministry of Health to avail vaccines are highly appreciated, the number of doses which has so far been received is too small for the target population of 21.9 million that should be vaccinated to safely reopen the economy.
The government has received 1.7 million doses of vaccines through donations from global sharing initiative – Covax, the Indian and Chinese governments, these include the 586,080 doses of vaccines received last month.
Using the doses received last month, the third phase of Covid-19 vaccination is underway in Kampala and districts across the country have confirmed that they started receiving the vaccines on Tuesday, a few days after clashes between the Ministry of Health and National Medical Stores on delivery of the vaccines.
The Ministry of Health should increase efforts to hunt for vaccines in foreign countries as local development of own vaccine continues so as to urgently vaccinate all teachers, health workers and high-risk groups which total around 4.4 million. We appreciate the continuous appeal by the World Health Organisation that rich countries should share the life-saving jabs with poor countries.
We also submit that the locally-developed Covid-19 be subjected to clinical trials to determine whether they actually work and those that are not effective should be removed from the market. The clinical trial on blood from Covid-19 survivors at Mulago hospital which found that the treatment was non-beneficial was frustrating but it was also an important eye opener that products should be tested scientifically.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation should expedite the release of the funds that the President promised the developers of Covdex and Covylice-1 for clinical trials.
[email protected]
