Ministry of Health has warned that Uganda may experience a second wave of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic if the public doesn’t adhere to the set standard operating procedures (SOPs).
While appearing before parliament yesterday, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said Ugandans have become complacent when it comes to following SOPs.
She says though government has managed to procure the AstraZeneca vaccine, people must continue to observe SOPs because even those that have been vaccinated can still contract the virus though their symptoms cannot be severe.
Uganda received 964,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which is being distributed to the entire country after vaccination was launched on Wednesday, March 10. The ministry has started with health workers and then teachers
“Gov’t is in the process of procuring other doses of vaccines to cater for security personnel after the teachers,” said Aceng.
Uganda targets to vaccinate 25 million people including the refugees. Donors will provide 18 million doses and gov’t will have to procure the other 27 million doses to cover the estimated numbers.
On the revision of the SOPs like lifting of curfew, the Minister said that the national taskforce will consider the proposals and report back to Parliament.
To date, Uganda has 40,535 confirmed cases of COVID-19 after 15 new cases were reported yesterday. 15,095 have recovered while 334 have succumbed to the virus.