The Ugandan government on Monday received 647,080 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the United States of America under the dose sharing arrangement through the COVAX Facility, reported CGTN Africa.
The vaccine donation is set to boost the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country.
“The Moderna vaccines that we have received today will be strictly administered to the priority population groups who have not received their first dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.” Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the Ugandan Health Minister said.
He said the Moderna vaccine is given in two doses, four weeks apart. He also warned that the vaccine cannot be mixed with any other vaccine which is currently being rolled out in the country.
The minister informed that Uganda is also set to receive 1.6 million Pfizer vaccine doses under the same dose-sharing arrangement before the end of this month.
Uganda has reported over 120,500 coronavirus cases so far including 3,053 related deaths.
The Ugandan health authorities have inoculated a total of 1,044,871 people with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and about 431,655 people with their second dose. The East African country plans to inoculate about 22 million people or nearly half the country’s population by the year-end.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued an alert on the use of fake versions of the Covishield vaccine in some countries in Africa and the South-East Asia Region.
The international health body stated that the falsified products were identified and reported in July and August 2021 and that the Serum Institute of India- the manufacturer of Covishield –had also confirmed that the products are indeed falsified. The fake vaccine doses were found in Uganda, India, and Myanmar.
Covishield vaccine is indicated for active immunization of people who are 18 years or older for the prevention of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
