UGANDA – Uganda has received 1,951,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Spanish Government to support the ongoing mass COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

In addition to the vaccine donation from Spain, the Ministry of Health has also received 950,000 doses from France and another 432,00 doses from Norway.

The government of Spain has up to date donated 25million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to African countries including Cote d’Ivoire, Angola, Mauritania, Egypt among others with the new batch being the first donation to Uganda.

Uganda currently received a total of 40million doses of vaccines which are more than enough to vaccinate the 22 million Ugandans, in a population of 45 million, who are 18 years and above.

Uganda has received a total of 6,864,960 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 1,600,000 of the Sinovac,4,855,320 of Moderna,11,765,520 of Pfizer and 14,982,300 doses of J&J to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The new consignment comes at the right time when Uganda is trying to prevent severe cases and deaths from COVID-19, protect people from hospitalization as well as prevent large COVID-19 outbreaks.

The Minister for Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng has confirmed that 14,054,059 people have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19 out of whom 20,758 have gone ahead to receive booster doses.

“The poor vaccine uptake has derailed vaccination campaign in Uganda leading to over 17 million vaccination doses of COVID-19 expected to expire if uptake in districts is not improved,” disclosed Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng.

Consequently, the Ugandan parliament is debating a new law that seeks to impose fines on citizens who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in an effort to boost the country’s drive to inoculate more people against coronavirus.

US donates additional COVID-19 vaccines to Uganda

Meanwhile, The United States (US) has donated 840,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Uganda through an international initiative for humanitarian crises in support against the widespread disease.

It is the first shipment of the J&J jab under the Humanitarian Buffer which is a mechanism established within the COVAX Facility to act as a measure of last resort to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk and vulnerable populations in humanitarian settings.

The US also pledged another 300,000 doses of J&J for distribution to humanitarian workers and United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide.

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