The United States will finance an anti-covid-19 vaccination campaign worth an estimated $27 million for the benefit of Uganda

The United States will finance an anti-covid-19 vaccination campaign worth an estimated $27 million for the benefit of Uganda, we learned on Friday, February 25, from a press release published by the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This will involve supplying the country with vaccines, but also supporting adequate logistics to reach the targeted people.

This American project aims to immunize approximately 12 million people, including nearly six million children aged 12 and over, in the country. According to the head of state, Yoweri Museveni, these people will benefit from either a dose of Johnson Johnson or two doses of another vaccine.

“As far as I know, there are around 3.5 million people plus security staff, teachers, healthcare staff, maids and bar staff etc. That’s more than six million people,” he said.

The project is part of a global US initiative aimed at “vaccinating at least 70% of the populations of the countries concerned [including 11 from sub-Saharan Africa, Editor’s note], by the end of next December”.

“After the delta variant, working together, we doubled down on getting people vaccinated and raising awareness. It made a big difference and that is why Uganda was chosen for this initiative. The success of this effort has made us realize that if we step up our efforts, we can achieve this goal by September,” said Natalie Brown (pictured), US Ambassador to the East African country.

The country started its vaccination campaign on March 10, 2021, targeting primarily health workers, people with comorbidities, people aged 50 or over and frontline or essential workers.

Although it has enough serum for more than 40% of its population, the country is 34.16% partially vaccinated and 5.45% fully immunized, according to estimates by Africa CDC.