US donates 64710 Pfizer vaccine dozes to Uganda

The Ugandan ambassador to UN Mr. Adonia Ayebare has revealed that USA through the Covax facility has donated 64710 Pfizer vaccine dozes to Uganda to help in the fight against Covid-19.

Ayebare tweeted that "Thank you @usmissionuganda for the donation of 64710 doses of Pfizer vaccines to Uganda through COVAX. We look forward to continued cooperation on COVID19 pandemic and other public health emergencies." 

Emmanuel Ainebyoona, ministry of health spokesperson said  on Monday that the vaccines would mostly be used in the central part of the country where storage facilities have been installed.

“Pfizer requires storage capacity of -70 degrees centigrade. We have installed some cold chains around Kampala Metropolitan area where we shall keep the vaccines once they arrive,” Ainebyoona said.

He added that there were some parts of the country with the same storage facility and therefore they would benefit from the Pfizer doses.

“Like the AstraZeneca vaccine, Pfizer is administered in two doses,” he said.

By Sunday, Uganda had vaccinated 1,058,084 people against the deadly virus using the AstraZeneca doses.

Ministry of health recently announced that this month it will receive over 882,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX. At least 300,000 doses of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine are also expected to arrive this month.

The country last month received 175,200 AstraZeneca doses with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund and the French Embassy under COVAX.

The country announced Monday it had cumulatively registered 87,756 COVID-19 infections, with 2,129 deaths and 61,304 recoveries since March last year.