Africa-Press – Uganda. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has received more than 50,000 doses of Pfizer and other vaccines to boost uptake in the metropolitan area.
Ms Juliet Muwanguzi Bukirwa Walakira, the KCCA spokesperson, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the fresh delivery from National Medical Stores (NMS) will help them increase the vaccination coverage.
“Today we got a delivery from NMS of 50,004 doses of Pfizer,” she said, adding that other doses of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson had also been delivered in the batch.
On Wednesday, this publication reported that vaccination centres in the capital city had run out of Pfizer vaccines despite huge demand among people who were coming for the first and second dose.
Mobile vaccination centres had also been closed.
But Ms Bukirwa said she was yet to establish why the mobile centres were closed, citing lack of vaccines as a potential cause. Dr Dan Okello, the head of public health services at KCCA, couldn’t be reached for a comments by press time.
Significance
The mobile centres had eased vaccine access and it had minimised the waiting time as more health workers were deployed to handle clients.
The shortage of vaccines caused the closure of vaccination centre in Wakiso District, according to residents.
The district health officer, Dr Mathias Lugolobi, confirmed to this newspaper that they were yet to receive more doses.
Ms Sheila Nduhukire, the NMS spokesperson, said the Health ministry has been implementing regional campaigns and “NMS delivered vaccines to Teso, Lango, Kigezi, Acholi, Tooro-Bunyoro, and West Nile.”
Mr Paul Okware, the chief stores and operations officer at NMS, said: “Wakiso requested [for more doses of vaccines] and I think it will be delivered today [yesterday]. The other thing is that you don’t just ask for more doses; you have to demonstrate how you have used the vaccines before we give you more,” he said.
Ms Anifa Kawooya, the State minister for Health in-charge of General Duties, in an interview on Wednesday blamed the vaccine gap on poor coordination between the district leadership and the NMS.
Vaccine uptake
NMS indicates that the country has so far received 28 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines through direct procurement and donations. But 15 million are yet to be deployed and administered.
At least 5.7 million people have been vaccinated with the first dose while 1.2 million are fully vaccinated. The country is racing to vaccinate 7 million people before fully reopening the economy in January.
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