Ugandan Health Ministry on Thursday said it is still waiting to know about the price of the COVID-19 vaccines as the COVID-19 Global Vaccine Access Facility (COVAX facility) continues to negotiate the price of the vaccine with the vaccine manufacturers, reported CGTN Africa.
In a statement, the ministry said Uganda, like other 90 low and medium-income countries, has registered to get the vaccines through the COVAX facility, which is negotiating on their behalf.
“No single country under COVAX has negotiated the price of the vaccine with the manufacturer directly,” the statement said.
The Ugandan ministry said that all countries, who have registered to procure the COVID-19 vaccine, will get it at the same price as agreed between the COVAX facility and the manufacturers.
“It is important to note that each manufacturer of the approved COVID-19 vaccines has a different cost,” the statement read.
The Ugandan ministry noted that the government has a working estate of 405 million U.S. dollars that the National Deployment Vaccination Plan would use to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier this month, the ministry said the country urgently needs to access the vaccines not only as a mitigating strategy against severe disease and deaths but also as a public measure to enable a safe return to normalcy.
The ministry warned that despite taking several measures to stop the spread of the virus, the COVID-19 cases have been rapidly increasing, noting that the number increased by 88 percent (22,000 cases) in the last three months.
The increase in COVID-19 cases in recent months has been blamed on complacency by citizens and blatant violation of COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).
As of Thursday, January 7, the country had a cumulative figure of 37,074 COVID-19 cases, 12,544 recoveries, and 297 deaths since the index case was registered on March 21, 2020, according to the ministry of health figures.
