Pfizer expires in October
In a classic case of the mountain going to Mohammed, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has extended Covid-19 vaccination to the masses to avoid the expiry of vaccines.
According to Dr Immaculate Ampaire, Assistant Manager Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization (UNEPI), the low turn up of persons at health centres for vaccination poses a great risk of expiry and considering the short shelf life of the vaccines, they cannot wait for people to approach the health centres.
“Most vaccines are expiring by October; we cannot just sit in the facilities and wait. People are not coming to the health facilities so we thought maybe going to open areas and doing open campaigns where people are… it’s for visibility and easy access to the highly populated areas,” Ampaire said.
Pfizer expires in October
MOH has opened four additional vaccination centres in the Kampala Metropolitan area hoping to reach more people. These include City Square, Old Taxi Park, Namboole Stadium and Mayor’s Gardens in Entebbe.
Currently, Uganda has 5,690,363 Covid-19 vaccine doses in stock. So far, only 2.3 million doses have been administered. The country received 1,674,270 doses of Pfizer/ BioNTech, 196,800 doses of the Johnson and Johnson Jabs, Sinovac and AstraZeneca, which need special storage and should be used within 30 days.
Uganda is targeting to fully vaccinate 4.8 million persons by December 2021 and 21 million others by the end of 2022. Targeted groups include health workers, security operatives, the elderly and those that live with pre-existing conditions that lower their immunity.
Apparently, only 570,000 people have been fully vaccinated with two doses each.
