The US government has donated 647,080 doses of Moderna vaccines to supplement the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination in the country.
The vaccines which were received by the Minister of health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, were donated under the dose sharing arrangement through the COVAX Facility.
The minister said: “The vaccines received will be strictly administered to the priority population groups who have not received their 1st dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.”
“It should be noted that the Moderna vaccine cannot be mixed with any other COVID-19 vaccine currently being rolled out in the country. Vaccine is administered in 2 doses, 4 weeks apart,” she said.
She revealed that Uganda will receive 1.6 M doses of the Pfizer vaccine under the same dose sharing arrangement before the end of September.
In the ongoing vaccination exercise, a total of 1,044,871 Ugandans have already received their first dose of the vaccine while 431,655 have fully been vaccinated.
The United States is committed to ending the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible. These U.S. donated COVID-19 vaccines will save Ugandan lives,” said U.S. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown. “We are in this together. We will overcome this virus.”
This donation will help protect the Ugandan people from the ongoing devastation of COVID-19. These doses are part of the U.S. government’s commitment to share the U.S. vaccine supply with the world. As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and work to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the United States will be an “arsenal of vaccines” for the world. To date, the United States has donated more than 125 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 80 countries around the world, and more are on their way.
As President Biden said: “From the beginning of my presidency, we have been clear-eyed that we need to attack this virus globally as well. This is about our responsibility our humanitarian obligation to save as many lives as we can and our responsibility to our values. We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic, working alongside our global partners.”
The United States is a longstanding partner in saving lives, improving health, and addressing public health threats in Uganda and the region. Since the pandemic began last year, the United States has provided approximately $110 million to Uganda in direct assistance specifically to prevent, detect, and respond to COVID-19.
U.S. Mission personnel have been committed and engaged in Uganda’s COVID response efforts from the beginning, and throughout each phase of the response we have provided critical funding and technical support. In advance of Uganda’s national vaccine rollout in March 2021, the United States provided technical and financial support in data management, risk communication, and community mobilization efforts that enabled vaccine uptake across Uganda.
“We will continue to do all we can to build a world that is safer and more secure against the threat of infectious disease,” Ambassador Brown said.
The U.S. government contributed $2 billion to Gavi in March, which supported procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX. In July, the U.S. government provided an additional $2 billion contribution to Gavi that will help fill the gap in COVAX’s vaccine supply.
