Deputy Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has directed that starting from the coming week all Members of Parliament will have to present their vaccination certificates to access the House.
While presiding over the Thursday plenary sitting, the Bukedea District Women lawmaker told members that Covid-19 is still in existence, so members of the August House must lead by example.
“And next week, one thing we need to inform the members is that Covid-19 is still there and we should still continue maintaining the SOPs. Therefore, from next week we will require members to come with their vaccination cards. We want to confirm that members have been vaccinated let us be the example. We need vaccination cords for us to see that members are vaccinated we want to pass the message to the whole country.”
Deputy Speaker’s ruling comes at a time when the Ministry of Health is vigorously running a campaign of mass vaccination despite the fact only a few people have been fully vaccinations and on a percentage scale, it’s 0.9 per cent.
Unfortunately, the 0.9 percentage is a clear indicator that Uganda is falling far short of its target to vaccinate priority groups by the end of this year. Since it has been hampered by accessibility issues and vaccine supplies with short shelf life.
As of now, the country has received 5.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through donations and direct procurement, but only 2.99 million have been utilized, with the rest lying idle in storage.
Out of the 2.99 million doses administered, only 584,066 people out of the country’s population of over 46 million are fully vaccinated, with 1.8 million receiving a single shot.
In her recent address to the country, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said the country plans to vaccinate about 22 million people above the age of 18 starting with 4.8 million people by the end of December in priority groups which include health workers, teachers, security personnel, the elderly and people with comorbidities. However, statistics show it may be very difficult to attain this target.
Yet failing to archive this target has an indirect effect since the government warned that the country would not be fully reopened following a second lockdown imposed on June 18 until these 4.8 million people were vaccinated.
Not fully opening the country leaves businesses like bars, casinos, and the entertainment industry in a prolonged economic drought which also indirectly affects the economy.
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