Cape Town - Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has called for Covid-19 vaccination efforts to be ramped up while threatening officials with dismissal should vaccines be left to expire.
Nearly 12 million doses of a variety of Covid-19 vaccines, including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Sinopharm, were expected to arrive by the end of December, Museveni said on Wednesday evening in the first Covid-19 national address since July.
The vaccines are being sourced from the US, Ireland, Belgium and China, to name a few.
Priority groups’ vaccinations are being stepped up, and resident district commissioners (RDC), chief administrative officers (CAO) and district health officers (DCO) have been ordered to ramp up mobilisation for vaccines.
“In any district where vaccines expire, the RDC, CAO and DHO will be dismissed,” Museveni warned.
Surveillance and testing have been increased at all airports and land points of entry to prevent a third wave and the emergence of new variants of Covid-19 in Uganda.
Adjusted Covid-19 mitigation measures include:
- Curfew between 7pm and 5.30am.
- 200 person limit for places of worship.
- 200 person limit for weddings, burials and other social events.
- Casinos and gyms to close by 6pm.
- Bars and entertainment venues remain closed and will reopen once 4.8 million people have been vaccinated.
- 280 000 more schooling staff, 330 000 students of 18 years or above and all priority groups are to be vaccinated before schools reopen.
Meanwhile, hundreds of motorcycles used by boda boda (taxi) drivers that were impounded due to curfew violations are to be returned to their drivers, local news platform Nile Post reported on Thursday.
“I direct you to release these motorcycles. I direct you to release them. Let us have an amnesty for these boda boda people,” Museveni said on Wednesday evening after alluding to the virtue of forgiveness as a religious person.
As of Wednesday, more than 1.6 million cumulative cases of Covid-19 have been recorded, including 3,135 deaths. More than 1.7 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, the East African country’s Ministry of Health reported.
African News Agency (ANA)