COVID-19 Vaccination: Best, Worst Districts Named

The Ministry of Health has named the best and worst districts in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

Jinja, Kyotera and Rukiga have been named as the best performing districts in terms of cumulative uptake of COVID-19 with 107.9%, 106.8% and 106.4% respectively. Other best performing districts include; Sheema (105.2%), Rukungiri (104.8%), Mpigi (104.5%), Mitooma (103.3%), Kikuube (102.9%) and Pakwach (101.4%) etc.

The Ministry also named Terego District in West Nile as the worst district in cumulative uptake of the vaccine with 33.9%. Others are; Bunyangabo (43.2%), Buvuma (44.0%), Namisindwa (44.8%), Namutumba (45.7%), Nakapiripirit (46.6%) and Lwengo (47.7%) etc.

While addressing the media on Thursday, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, Emmanuel Ainebyoona urged the public especially of the vulnerable and special groups of people to take up the jab.

“The expiry date for the latest vaccine to be distributed is 30th September 2021. It is therefore urgent that all districts speed up proper utilization of available doses so the country doesn’t lose doses through expiry hence denting the consumption commitments made at a global level,” Ainebyoona said.

By 13th September, 2021, 61 (45%) of the districts had less than 70% uptake, 34 (25%) of the districts had less than 60%, and 11 (8%) had less than 50% uptake of vaccines distributed to them.

To address the challenges of low uptake, the Ministry of Health has appealed to all districts to quickly review their vaccination plan to ensure that no dose is left in the district and also work with partners to establish open ground vaccination sites for all townships and municipalities.

To date, a total of 2,799,920 doses of COVID-19 vaccines comprising of AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Moderna have been received in the country out of which 2,152,840 doses have been distributed to the security forces under the technical management of the district health officers.

So far, a total of 1,697,748 (78.8%) doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered out of which 1,203,686 persons have received the first dose while 494,062 have received the second dose.