Booster Doses to Be Administered Starting Next Month

The ministry of health will start giving booster doses to those who are ready to receive them beginning February 2022. 

According to the health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the elderly aged 50 years and above have already started receiving their booster doses.

As of Jan. 7, Uganda had administered 12,085,428 doses. 10,315,951 of the 22 million priority persons have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines and 2,236,544 are vaccinated using J&J vaccine while 1,769,477 have received the second dose of their initial vaccine and are therefore fully vaccinated.

"Considering it requires only one dose of J&] to be fully vaccinated, Uganda has fully vaccinated 4,006,021 people (a vaccination coverage of 18.2%)," said Aceng this past Friday.

A booster dose is a dose of vaccine that is given to someone who is already fully vaccinated after a specified period, in this case, 6 months. This offers additional protection against the threat of the new COVID-19 Variants like Omicron.

The minister noted that the country had moved from the period of sustained containment where the positivity rate was below 5 %.  

"The country is now in its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic," she said, adding that positivity rate is now at 11.2%.

The Ministry of Health will administer booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the Elderly aged 50 years and above, Security personnel, Health workers, Teachers (in pre-primary, primary, secondary and post-secondary institutions), Boda Boda riders, Drivers and conductors of all Passenger Services Vehicles (PSVs), Bar and night club workers, Market workers and vendors, Religious leaders, Media.

It will begin with Health workers, Teachers and the Security Forces now, while the rest will start at the end of March 2022.

The aforementioned groups of people were recommended for booster doses due their high level of contact with the other members of the public during their day-to-day activities.

The recommended groups are eligible for boosters if they completed their primary vaccine series at least 6 months ago.

At the end of March 2022, the minister said, passengers will be required to present vaccination certificates showing their full vaccination status since adequate time has been given to receive the second dose.