Case of health workers vaccinating but not yet vaccinated

Health Workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine

Lyantonde, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The COVID-19 task force in Lyantonde district is investigating health workers who refused to take the COVID-19 jab.

Lyantonde Resident District Commissioner Catherine Kamwine says that the task force was perturbed to learn that the people who administer the COVID-19 vaccine weren’t vaccinated, yet they were classified as a priority group because of their frontline work. Kamwine tasked the District Health Officer to compile a list of the health workers who received their jabs as well as those who refused.

She explains that the ongoing investigations will help the task force to establish why the health workers are opposed to taking the vaccine yet they are the most vulnerable in line of their duty.

Lyantonde District Chairman Fred Muhangi says that they are working with the police and other departments to investigate the matter. He adds that they want the vaccination of health workers to be compulsory as the government has done to teachers, school administrators and other staff.

Dr Moses Nkanika, the Lyantonde District Health Officer says that there may be some who deliberately refused to take the jabs for unknown reasons. He adds that they intend to meet the health workers to establish why they refused the vaccine and them help them to understand that the vaccine is safe.

However, a female nurse at Lyantonde General Hospital, who declined to be named to protect her job, says she could not trust the AstraZeneca vaccine after other countries suspended its use. She adds that she was scared after reading a lot of information, especially on social media about the vaccine.

She further noted that the information highlighting the possible after-effects of the vaccine including blood clots, impotence barrenness and the like, gave me a second thought about the vaccine.  Lyantonde has registered over 140 positive cases in the first wave and 312 in the second wave of which 20 were health workers, according to Dr Nkanika.

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