Uganda has received additional 700,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine donated by the People’s Republic of China. The 700,000 doses were an addition of 300,000 doses donated by China on July 31. They were received by Ms. Margaret Muhanga, the minister of state for primary healthcare, on Tuesday at the National Medical Stores (NMS) in Entebbe.
While handing over the vaccines, H:E Zhang Lizhong, the Chinese ambassador to Uganda reiterated China’s friendship and collaboration with Uganda, which he said dates as far back as 1983. He noted that China’s president Xi Jinping wants to make the vaccine a public product with fair and equitable distribution especially among developing countries.
“President Xi JinPing announced that China will be providing two billion COVID-19 vaccines to the world, some of which shall be donated through the COVAX facility while others through bilateral channels,” revealed ambassador Lizhong.
According to minister Muhanga, teachers are to be prioritised with the Sinovac vaccine because they are the ones who were earlier targeted with the first batch of the Sinovac vaccine. “To date, we have received 6,631,763 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. 2,575,021 of these have already been given out and 3,021,994 are being rolled out,” noted Muhanga.
Dr. Alfred Driwale the assistant commissioner vaccines and immunisation said the ministry is going to first roll out 300,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines, targeting those who got the first dose of the same vaccine, and later roll out the remaining 400,000 doses. He also noted that Uganda has so far received 600,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine whose distribution will start next week.
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