Uganda has received a donation of 647,080 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the Government of the United States of America under the through the COVAX facility.
The Ministry of Health has said the consignment will supplement the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination exercise in the country.
Jane Ruth Aceng the Minister of Health said the Moderna vaccine received will be strictly administered to the priority population groups who have not received their 1st dose of any COVID-19 vaccine
The Moderna vaccine is administered in 2 doses, 4 weeks apart. It should be noted that the Moderna vaccine cannot be mixed with any other COVID-19 vaccine currently being rolled out in the country.
Aceng said, Uganda will receive 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine under the same dose sharing arrangement before the end of September.
In the ongoing vaccination exercise, a total of 1,044,871 people have received the 1st dose of the vaccine while 431,655 have received their 2nd dose.
The Moderna COVID‑19 vaccine codenamed mRNA-1273 and sold under the brand name Spikevax, is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna, the United States National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
U.S. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown said during the handover of the consignment that: “The United States is committed to ending the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible. These U.S. donated COVID-19 vaccines will save Ugandan lives,” she added: “We are in this together. We will overcome this virus.”
She added that donation represents the commitment by the Biden-Harris administration to help protect the Ugandan people from the ongoing devastation of COVID-19.
“These doses are part of the U.S. government’s commitment to share the U.S. vaccine supply with the world. As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and work to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the United States will be an “arsenal of vaccines” for the world. To date, the United States has donated more than 125 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to 80 countries around the world, and more are on their way,” said Ambassador Brown.
