Gulu targets 150,000 people in second phase of Covid-19 vaccination

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu District Health Department is targeting to vaccinate 156,755 people in the second phase of the mass Covid-19 vaccination.

The Ministry of Health launched the second phase of mass Covid-19 vaccination in Acholi sub-region a week ago from Gulu city.

William Onyai, the Gulu District Health Educator says that the mass vaccination campaign is expected to last a week.

Onyai says they are targeting to vaccinate 93,795 people for the first dose of the vaccine and another 62,960 for the second Covid-19 doses.

According to Onyai, health officials in both the district and city have so far vaccinated 3,228 people in the last three days since the mass vaccination drive was launched in the area.

He also notes that the health ministry has sent in a total of 98,981 doses of vaccines for the mass vaccination campaign. The vaccines according to Onyai, comprise 1,573 doses of Sinovac, 6,518 doses of Moderna vaccines, and 90,890 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

“We believe the consignments will help us to cover our target in this vaccination campaign. We ask people to come out and get vaccinated,” says Onyai.

Onyai however says despite the large number of vaccines delivered by the health ministry, the turn up in the last three days is very low.

He says that they are worried that both the district and city health officials may not hit their target owing to the low turn-up of people.

“We are not doing well, very few people are coming for the vaccination yet workers are out there and very ready. I encourage people to come forward to help in curbing the spread of Covid-19,” he said.

The State Minister for Health in charge of General Duties, Anifa Kawooya last week blamed the low vaccine uptake in the Acholi sub-region on misinformation spread by people in the community and social media.

Kawooya asked the religious, traditional, and political leaders to rally locals to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Last year, the region also failed to hit its target of vaccinating 900,000 people in the region during the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination.

Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the National Vaccination Commander and Director of Health Services in charge of public health noted that only five districts in the region performed well in the first phase of mass Covid-19 vaccination.

He highlighted that Gulu, Amuru, and Nwoya poorly performed in the vaccination drive.

According to Kyabayinze, Gulu district and Gulu city only utilized 45 percent of the doses despite getting 165,000 doses of vaccines, while in Nwoya, only 58,000 people out of the targeted 128,000 were vaccinated.

In Amuru district, vaccination performance stood at only 43 percent despite receiving a total of 110,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

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