Remain Vigilant  Against  COVID-19  Run

The Public  Relations Office, Office  of the President  in conjunction  with the Ministry  of  Health, Ministry  of  Education  and Sports and Ministry  of ICT and National  Guidance  have organised an awareness Run titled: Remain Vigilant  Against  COVID-19  in preparation  for the festive season  and the reopening  of the economy"

The run, slated for Sunday,  19th December 2021 is aimed at raising the consciousness of Ugandans to remain vigilant about the need to prevent a surge in the spread of COVID-19 once the current restrictions are lifted.

The proposed theme of the run is Remain Vigilant Against COVID-19.

As you are aware, moving into the festive season also presents many challenges like excitement where people let down their guard in preventive measures.

Apart from looking at keeping up the vigilance as the country moves towards reopening of the economy in January next year, we would like to highlight the need for responsible behavior this festive season, hence the need for this run.

In compliance with existing guidelines, participants will not exceed 300 including the press and other service providers. A comprehensive mini run route map will be availed before the event.

It is envisaged that the run will hammer home through awareness the citizens’ duty to ultimately prevent the surge of COVID-19 infections following the full reopening of the economy by going for vaccinations and observing the SOPs.

The Ministry  of  Health  health  wishes to appeal  to the General  public   to remain vigilant  as they go for the festive  season  and ahead of the economy  opening  in January  next  year.

 Background to the COVID-19 Pandemic

P•It is currently coming to 2 years since Uganda confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 21st, 2020. To date vaccination together with public health SOPs (Handwashing, Social distancing, and mask wearing) have been proven key to controlling the covid-19 Pandemic and paving way for economic recovery.

In His last address to the Nation on 28th October 2021, His Excellence the President stated, and I quote: ‘’Now that we have the vaccines, all the eligible categories, come out and be vaccinated so that we open the schools and the economy in January 2022”.

•Uganda started vaccinating on March 10th, 2021. We have 6 vaccines rolled out for use (AZ, J&J, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinopharm, & Sinovac). To date over 7.8 million Doses have been administered. 

About the vaccination campaigns in Uganda

Over the last 7 months (March to October 2021), vaccine availability has been one of the main constraints in increasing vaccination coverage. Currently, vaccines are becoming more available. All these brands are WHO approved and are effective and safe for preventing severe disease and death due to COVID-19 disease. Despite the vaccine availability, there has been low uptake.

To address these gaps, new strategies including going into country wide Accelerated Mass Vaccination Campaign Mode have been adopted.

The country was partitioned into clusters.

The campaigns started in Teso and Lango on 8th Nov 21 which saw 1.4 M people vaccinated in one week in the two regions.

It moved to Kigezi and Acholi, where 800k doses were administered during the AMVC week.

Accelerated Mass  vaccination Campaigns are on-going in West Nile and Toro. Today, the Ministry is launching  the same Campaign  in Ankole. 

The exercise  will later move to Bunyoro , Kampala, Mukono, Wakiso and hope to be concluded by 22nd Dec. (We are targeting administering 7M doses)

Where are we today?

Total Doses Administered as of 12th Dec 2021(Dose1 and 2)- 7,888, 584. 

•1st Dose-6,590,337

•2nd Dose-1,287,307

We need to have over 15M people vaccinated by early next year and that is possible if we all take responsibility.   We have so far received  over 30.6 million  doses of the COVID-19  vaccines and have distributed  about 16 million  doses.

We would therefore want to ask each and every one of us to join the cause, encourage colleagues, friends and family to get vaccinated so that we can return to normality - Full opening of the economy.

We would like to see many organizations, associations and partners join this cause. 

Hon. Margaret Muhanga 

Minister  of  State  for  Health, PHC