The government of Uganda has reiterated the call on citizens to embrace the available vaccine in order to salvage the successes so far registered in the fight against COVID-19.
Through the Minister of Information and National Guidance, Hon Judith Nabakooba, government has urged Ugandans to take the assurance from health experts and Ministry of Health and embrace the vaccine as a measure to save lives.
On March 10, Uganda rolled out a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign starting with high risk groups including frontline health workers, security personnel and teachers. However, the campaign has so far seen less than 1500 Ugandans receive the vaccine partly due to the contradicting information in the public over alleged side effects associated with the vaccine.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Minister Nabakooba urged those involved in spreading fear and wrong information against the vaccine must stop.
Uganda has so far acquired 964,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and so far all districts have received their batches according to the Ministry of Health.
“The vaccine has so far been distributed in 11 African countries and in Europe, millions of people have used it… I urge everyone to embrace the vaccine. Let those involved in spreading fear and wrong information against the vaccine to stop as well” Nabakooba said.
The minister’s message was in commemoration of a year ever since Uganda registered her first COVID-19 case on March 21, 2020.
Reflecting on the period under COVID-19 pandemic, Nabakooba says the key lesson has been the importance of leadership at all levels which played a huge role to minimize the spread of coronavirus through regular guidance and mobilization of the public towards set SOPs.
Nabakooba says in pandemics of this nature, Uganda has successfully demonstrated that leadership is key to winning. She highlighted the effort president Museveni made including regular addresses to the nation which provided hope and confidence during difficult days of the lockdown.
Through concerted efforts, Nabakooba said the number of patients admitted in hospitals reduce to less than 28 people down from 400, as well as daily tally of cases drastically reducing to under 20 from 400.
“It is important to reflect on lessons and challenges faced and those things we must continue to do. I therefore would like to call upon everyone not to give up on preventive lessons learnt” She said.
“This shows that the battle against COVID-19 can be won if Ugandans continue to stick to guidelines given” -she added.
