UGANDA – Uganda is expected to receive 647,010 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the World Health Organization COVAX facility to boost the country’s protection against COVID-19.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, ministry of health spokesperson, says the vaccines would mostly be used in the central part of the country where storage facilities have been installed.
“Pfizer requires storage capacity of -70 degrees centigrade. We have installed some cold chains around Kampala Metropolitan area where we shall keep the vaccines once they arrive,” Ainebyoona said.
He added that there were some parts of the country with the same storage facility and therefore they would benefit from the Pfizer doses.
“Like the AstraZeneca vaccine, Pfizer is administered in two doses,” he said.
By Sunday, Uganda had vaccinated 1,058,084 people against the deadly virus using the AstraZeneca doses.
Ministry of health recently announced that this month it will receive over 882,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX.
At least 300,000 doses of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine are also expected to arrive this month.
The country last month received 175,200 AstraZeneca doses with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund and the French Embassy under COVAX.
The country announced Monday it had cumulatively registered 87,756 COVID-19 infections, with 2,129 deaths and 61,304 recoveries since March last year.
In a move to contain the virus, Uganda’s National Drug Authority (NDA) approved Covidex as a supportive treatment for viral infections including COVID-19 but not as a cure.
Covidex has been formulated from herbal plants that have been traditionally used to alleviate symptoms of several diseases.
Recently, the UK committed £500,000 (over $708,000) to support Uganda’s with medical oxygen, vital support that is set to benefit over 1.8 million people across Uganda.
These vaccines are part of a shipment of vaccines donated by the United States. The shipments will go to about 50 African countries and include doses of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines.
These vaccines are a much-needed reprieve for Africa, which is in the middle of the third, and potentially worst yet, wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
