The Chinese government has bolstered government of Uganda’s covid-19 vaccination campaign with an additional 700,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine. Speaking at the handover of the vaccines at National Medical Stores (NMS) on Tuesday, the Chinese Ambassador to Uganda Zhang Lizhong urged the government of Uganda to ensure that the vaccines reach the people.
The vaccines have come at a very special time and we would like to urge the government of Uganda to ensure that there is fair and equitable distribution of the vaccines. The government of China is committed to ensuring that over 200 million vaccines are distributed to developing countries, Ambassador Zhang Lizhong revealed.
The UNEPI Director Driwale Alfred also thanked the Chinese government for the vaccines and added that with more teachers being vaccinated, schools will be reopened.
We are grateful to the government of China for their generous donation of the 700, 000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine on top of the 300,000 doses that they donated to us. With more covid-19 vaccines now, there will be no excuse why we should have teachers who aren’t vaccinated and this takes us further to accelerating the reopening of schools, Driwale Alfred stressed.
On his part, the World Health Organization Country representative Dr. Yonas Woldemariam thanked the Chinese government for the generous donation and added that vaccination and observing the covid-19 public health measures and standard operating procedures (SOPs) will help beat the pandemic.
On her part, the state minister for primary health care Hon. Margaret Muhanga revealed that the doses of the Sinovac vaccine will help in vaccinating a bigger number of Ugandans so that the economy can be opened fully.
Uganda has received 1.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by the government of China and to date, we have received 6,631,763 vaccines in the country. We shall target teachers who had taken the first dose and when we are finished we can roll out 400,000 more doses in two different groups for the first and second dose. Government is committed to vaccinating the older population, health workers, teachers, and the armed forces. We would like to urge the health workers to verify and inquire if people have received the first dose to avoid mixing of vaccines, Minister Muhanga revealed.
