Only 4000 police officers vaccinated against COVID-19

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Police’s medical team will need four more weeks in Kampala vaccinating policemen and women against COVID-19. The vaccination exercise targeting 20,000 out of close to 47,000 police personnel started on March 22. 

Kampala which has the highest concentration of police officers was expected to be complete in at least two weeks’ time. but the medical team has so far vaccinated 4,176 personnel, among them 3,366 policemen and 810 policewomen from the districts of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso. 

Police’s director for health services Dr Moses Byaruhanga told Uganda Radio Network –URN in an interview that they will need an additional four weeks to complete the vaccination program in the Kampala metropolitan area before embarking on the vaccination of officers in the 28 police regions.

“At the start, the turn up was a bit low. But after seeing people like the President, the First Lady, the Vice President and others getting vaccinated, the turn up has since increased. We used to vaccinate 130 to 180 officers a day but yesterday we vaccinated 471. The numbers are increasing,” Dr Byaruhanga said.

As of today, police records indicate that only 167 cases of COVID-19 have been detected amongst police officers of which only six have succumbed to the disease. In order to keep Covid19 numbers low, Dr Byaruhanga has directed all District/Division Police Commanders –DPCs to give tips in their every Monday briefing.

The Inspector-General of Police, Martin Ochola, set up a COVID-19 task force purposely to ensure police personnel are protected from the pandemic. The team is headed by Maj Gen Jack Bakasumba, who is also the Chief of Joint Security.

“I am extremely happy that we have kept COVID-19 cases very low in our institution. Our campaign that involves sending routine messages has worked. Even the vaccination program is so far going very well. We haven’t got serious cases of people reacting to the vaccine,” Dr Byaruhanga added.

Some police officers, according to Dr Byaruhanga, have experienced mild side effects such as malaise, headache and body weakness. Police believe that by the end of the four weeks’ period they have vaccinated around 8,000 to 10,000 personnel.

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URN