To date, 300’000 Sinovac vaccines lie at the National Medical Stores -NMS stores awaiting distribution orders from the Ministry of health -MOH officials.
The vaccines donated from the China govt arrived through the Covax facility the previous week alongside doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine donated by the Norwegian gov’t.
Despite launching the vaccination exercise last week, the Ministry of Health only distributed 286,000 Astra Zeneca vaccines to the public.
These Astra jabs are targeting only health workers and persons supposed to receive their second jabs within a period of 10 weeks.
Now, Dr Alfred Driwale, the programme manager of Uganda Expanded Programme of Immunization -UNEPI says Sinovac vaccines will be selectively distributed.
He explains that the target group is persons or companies interested in using the vaccines as compared to wasting them on required target groups.
Dr Driwale says high-risk groups like teachers and health workers on some occasions resist taking these vaccines wasting vails that would otherwise benefit the needy.
“From past experience, people in organized groups are more willing to get the jab. They know its value and that is why even in the first round of vaccination, many of them reached out to us to get the vaccines. With these groups, there is no begging them to get the vaccine. They want it and even look for you to give it to them,” Dr Driwale said.
He says they are considering banks, companies, and organizations that might be interested in getting vaccinated to minimize wastage.
The available vaccines will be used to fully vaccinate 150,000 people who are in organized groups.
The vaccine requires two doses two to four weeks apart and efficacy studies show that it can stop severe disease and deaths in 51 vaccinated people out of every 100.
About Sinovac
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization has issued Interim recommendations for the use of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine, Sinovac-CoronaVac, developed by Sinovac/China National Pharmaceutical Group.
The vaccine is not recommended for persons younger than 18 years of age, pending the results of further studies in that age group.
Vaccination is recommended for persons with comorbidities that have been identified as increasing the risk of severe COVID-19, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease.
The vaccine can be offered to people who have had COVID-19 in the past.
Available data shows that symptomatic reinfection is unlikely in these persons for up to 6 months after natural infection.
