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Covid-19: Govt rolls out door-to-door vaccination campaign
Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine. PHOTO | BRIAN ADAMS KESIIME
What you need to know:
- Launching the campaign in Mpigi Town on Saturday, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary Ministry of Health, said health workers are going to work closely with the members of the village health teams (VHTs) to reach out to all unvaccinated residents including the elderly who failed to access vaccination centres.
The Ministry of Health has launched a door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination exercise in a renewed campaign to curb Covid-19 hospitalisation and deaths.
Launching the campaign in Mpigi Town on Saturday, Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary Ministry of Health, said health workers are going to work closely with the members of the village health teams (VHTs) to reach out to all unvaccinated residents including the elderly who failed to access vaccination centres.
"I call upon all residents of Mpigi and other areas to go and get vaccinated so that we don’t get into another lockdown," she said.
Dr Atwine said the Ministry currently has 13 million doses of vaccines to enable them to execute the exercise.
She said the campaign is targeting areas of Greater Mpigi, Masaka, Kampala, Karamoja, Kapchorwa, Bugisu, Bukedea and Busoga.
Dr Atwine dismissed circulating reports in some areas that the vaccines make men impotent.
“I have been hearing men saying that they won’t get vaccinated because they fear losing their sexual appetite, this is not true," she said.
Dr Margret Nanozi, the Mpigi District health officer said only 47 per cent of the targeted population in the district have been vaccinated fully.
“Our target as a district is to vaccinate 2.6 million people during this exercise. We have decided to move door-to-door in order to get all people including persons with disabilities and elderly who cannot make it to vaccination centres,” Dr Nanozi said.
On Thursday, the government came up with a Bill that will make it compulsory for Ugandans to get vaccinated or be fined Shs4 million or be jailed for six months or both, for refusal to comply.
The Public Health (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has since been tabled before Parliament.
The Bill suggests that any persons opposed to the mandatory vaccination exercise as put in place by the government through the Ministry of Health at any administrative unit in the country will be fined 200 currency points, which translates into Shs4m.
Last month, the government announced the resumption of mass Covid-19 vaccination in Masaka, Karamoja, and other areas in eastern Uganda.
The exercise had been suspended to concentrate on nationwide mass polio immunization, but routine Covid-19 has been going on at health facilities across the country.
Information from the Ministry of Health indicates that the country has so far vaccinated 48 per cent of the target which is 22 million Ugandans.
The ministry has also started administering booster doses to the elderly and those with comorbidities who have completed six months since full vaccination.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, a total of 3,483 of the 162,136 who have been infected, have succumbed to the virus.
