The government of Uganda is set to receive 9 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine in a bid to support mass vaccination campaign through African Union.
This was revealed by the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Health, Ms Diana Atwine and according to her, these vaccines will be delivered in a phased manner to support the ongoing mass Covid-19 vaccination program.
“Government has ordered a total of 9 million doses of J&J vaccines through the African Union (AU) / African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) initiative to the tune of Shs290. These vaccines will be delivered in a phased manner to support the ongoing mass Covid-19 vaccination program” she said.
Ms Atwine made these remarks after receiving the first batch of 196,800 doses of the vaccine on yesterday at Entebbe International Airport.
“This vaccine will be administered as a single dose to the priority groups who have not received any Covid-19 vaccine to date,” she said.
Ms Atwine said the government has released a total of Shs120 billion to the Ministry and National Medical Stores (NMS) for the procurement and handling of Covid vaccines.
“Shs55.8 billion was disbursed as a down payment to access the J&J vaccine, Shs50.4 billion has been released to procure 2,060,400 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine expected early December 2021 as part of the order of 17,829,400 doses that Uganda placed with COVAX facility,” she said in the statement.
Uganda has so far received 5,690,363 doses of Covid-19 vaccines comprising of AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Moderna, Pfizer and now J&J according to Dr Atwine.
1,704,279 people have so far have received their first dose and 578,135 people have got their second jab according to the health ministry.