Low turn-up for mass COVID-19 vaccination in Entebbe

There was a low turn-up on the first day of mass vaccination against Covid-19 in areas of Entebbe. At both designated vaccination sites of Nkumba primary school and Entebbe Mayor’s garden, few people could be spotted going for the jab. Some of them left before the vaccination exercise could start, apparently, in order to reach their working areas on time.

The vaccination exercise which was supposed to begin at 8am, rather started at 1pm when many had left. Medical workers who were expected to vaccinate, were also seen seated under the tree shades, seemingly with no proper communication from authorities.

Ramathan Abdul tour operator and resident of Kitubulu in Entebbe, refused to be vaccinated with Pfizer saying, his clients (the tourists) prefer Johnson and Johnson vaccine against any other. He noted that, the preferred vaccine is administered once.

However, for Samuel Ochieng also a resident of Entebbe was glad to be vaccinated saying, he had for long, waited for the opportunity. Meanwhile, he complained about the late time, when the exercise started.

Nooh Njuki the Wakiso deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC) in charge of Entebbe, urged people to turn up for the vaccination exercise saying, it could be a golden chance or them. Echoing president Museveni’s directive, Njuki said, mass vaccination is a prerequisite for opening up schools.

Many people expressed skepticism about Pfizer vaccine having been used to names like AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson.

Sheila Nduhikire the National Medical Stores (NMS) spokesperson said, their mandate is to buy, store and also distribute the vaccines to the government hospitals and health centres as directed by the ministry of health. She explained that vaccines were delivered on time to all districts health headquaters as the ministry had directed.

“We distributed Pfizer vaccine only to those districts around our head office due to the vaccine’s specific conditions which require it to be stored at -65 degrees,” intimated Nduhukire. The said districts include, Mukono, Kampala and Wakiso which lie in close proximity with NMS.