The first batch of 196,800 doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J & J) vaccines procured with funding from the Government of Uganda arrived yesterday evening.
The consignment was officially received by the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr. Diana Atwine together with other officials from the ministry and National Medical Stores officials.
To date, the Government of Uganda has received 5,690,363 doses of COVID-19 vaccines comprising of; AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Moderna, Pfizer, and now Johnson and Johnson. Of these, 2,282,414 doses have been administered while 2,080,594 are currently being distributed countrywide. Of the administered doses, 1,704,279 have received their 1st dose and 578,135 got their 2nd dose
Earlier this week, Uganda hit the 2 million mark of vaccinations and Dr. Atwine hinted at the possibility of lifting the national lockdown.
“Covid 19 isn’t going to go away soon. The best thing to do now is to embrace vaccination,” said Atwine.
However, in his last address, President Yoweri Museveni said that the entire economy will be opened up after vaccinating 4.8 million people. Mass vaccination campaigns have been conducted in the past weeks and in many areas, the turn up has been positive.