Uganda to scale up vaccination, relaxes some Covid-19 restrictions

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia October 23, 2019. [Reuters]

The Ugandan government has eased some of the Covid-19 measures imposed on the public, urging its citizens to be vaccinated.

This comes at a time when the country has registered 122,502 confirmed cases and 3,135 deaths since the pandemic started.

In a press statement on Wednesday, September 22, President Yoweri Museveni said that they were prioritising the vaccination of the 4.8 million priority population, majorly consisting of the vulnerable.

“Government continues to carry out extensive mobilization of COVID-19 vaccines and by the end of December 2021, we expect about 12 million doses,” Museveni’s statement read in part.

“As of now, we have 2,294,000 doses of vaccines available at the National Medical Stores (NMS) out of 11,978,840 million doses expected by end of December 2021,” he added.

As a way of combating the spread of the virus, the Ugandan government is scaling up vaccination for all eligible Ugandans aged over 18 years.

Further, Museveni has ordered the reopening of places of worship with not more than 200 congregants and extended the dusk to dawn curfew.

Learning in the landlocked country will resume in phases, as post-secondary education resumes on November 1, 2021, as the rest resumes in January 2022.

“The 330,000 students aged 18 years and above in post-secondary institutions should be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Museveni directed.

The relaxing of Covid-19 measures comes two months after the government partly locked down the country and banned all public gatherings which have since been relaxed.