Last Updated on: 19th October 2021, 09:54 am
Lira City’s vaccination uptake of the target population now stands at 57%.
Lira – 19, October 2021: Covid-19 vaccinations continue across the country with a call to the population to embrace the vaccines.
In Africa, Uganda is commended for managing the pandemic, and has put much efforts in containing it since first case was reported in March 2020.
Now, in Lira City, the Covid-19 task force has set a target on vaccination.
The task force is headed by the Resident City Commissioner (RCC), Mr. Lawrence Egole and Deputized by Mr. Eseru Paul. The latter is the Deputy Resident City Commissioner (DRCC) Lira.
Speaking to TND News on Monday, Eseru said the “vaccination uptake in Lira City was initially very slow in the first exercise but the team ably headed by the RCC and the Principal Medical Officer decided to double their efforts”.
He adds that: “They intensified their mobilization efforts by setting up more accessible vaccination sites, sensitized the communities through Radios and VHTs and closely supervised the exercise.”
Todate, the DRCC says the vaccination uptake in Lira City has tremendously increased. “To demonstrate this, during the second vaccination exercise, Lira City received 1,982 doses of the vaccines and in a record time of only two days all the vaccines were completely exhausted in all vaccination sites leaving people yearning for more.”
The persons vaccinated were mainly the teaching staff, non-teaching staff and students above 18 years, among others.
In the third exercise which is currently running, Lira City again received 3,850 doses of the vaccines and the vaccination exercise commenced immediately that very Friday afternoon, according to Eseru.
He further told this publication that unfortunately, medical team didn’t work over the weekend but by close of business today (Monday), the City team had vaccinated 2,198 persons, representing 57% vaccine utilization “in a record of one and half days”.
The DRCC says the team intends to finish all the vaccines by Wednesday this week. “Just like President Museveni, the team’s resolute and passion to drive this vaccination program is very high.”
The only biggest challenge Lira City is facing is transport and sometimes the vaccines get finished from one vaccination site and they have to carry out redistribution.
According to Eseru, this involves picking vaccines from one site and another with surplus and take to another place with a short supply.
“Lira City has a target of vaccinating 100% of its priority population. This includes the teachers, non teaching staffs, students above 18 years, health workers, security personnel, among among others,” Eseru reveals.
Nationally, 2,575,021 total doses have been administered. This is according to the ministry of health’s October 16 statistics.
By October 16, 2021, 1,755,591 people had been tested for Covid-19 with a total cumulative cases standing at 125,261.
Since March 2021, 96,389 people have recovered, 3,185 deaths recorded and 298 active cases were on admission at different health facilities across the country.