Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng has announced that the arrival of the initial batch of 864,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines will be on March 5 2021 and vaccination scheduled to begin on the 10th March 10 2021.
Aceng says that vaccination will be voluntary upon signing a consent form and will be free of charge. She further explains that they target to vaccinate 49.6% of the population which is about 21,936,011 people, in a phased manner.
Each phase is planned to cover 20% of the population which is about 4,387,202 people.
According to Aceng, the global pressure on vaccine stocks, the priority persons to be vaccinated is guided by the occupational risk of infection, risk of developing severe disease, death from COVID- 19, and population characteristics (age, gender and geographical location).
“Phase 1 of the vaccination exercise will focus on: Health workers (Public, Private Not for Profit (PNFP) and Private for Profit (PFP)) estimated at 150,000, Security personnel (UPDF, Police, Prisons); estimated at 250,000,” says Aceng.
Earlier last month, government ordered for 18 million more doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India bringing the total expected doses to 37 million.