105 new covid admissions registered in 24 hours

The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, has declared that Uganda is now in the third wave of the #COVID19 pandemic after the country’s average daily infections shot to 1,386.

However, this has been blamed on poor adherence to Standard Operating procedures and several Ugandans testing positive for COVID-19 failing to isolate.

Summary of the #COVID19 updates from the Minister for Health, Jane Ruth Aceng

COVID-19 response, vaccination coverage, and implementation of various Presidential directives. In the last 14 days,19,413 confirmed cases have been registered with a daily average of 1,386 cases.

We have 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.

The country has moved to this new transmission wave due to factors such as; limited adherence to SOPs in most of the places, crowding especially during the festive season, the misconception that once vaccinated SOPs no longer apply, and abuse of the requirements to Isolate when found +ve

So far, 12,085,428 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to the population. To date, 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 the J&J vaccine.

While 1,769,477 have received the second dose and are therefore fully vaccinated. Considering it requires only one dose of J&J to be fully vaccinated, Uganda has fully vaccinated 4,006,021 people (a vaccination coverage of 18.2%)

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.

We shall start giving booster doses to those who are ready to receive them beginning February 2022. The elderly aged 50 years and above have already started receiving their booster doses.

However, following the directive of H.E the President, the Ministry of Health will administer booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the following priority populations:

• Elderly aged 50 years and above
• Security personnel
• Health workers
• Teachers both in pre-primary, primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions
• Boda boda riders VI. Drivers and conductors of all Passenger Services Vehicles (PSVs)
• Bar and nightclub workers
• Market workers and vendors
• Religious leaders
• The Media

We shall 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 to 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.

The Ministry of Health would like to guide that testing of learners prior to going back to school or on arrival is NOT an official position of the COVID-19 National task Force.

Testing before returning to school is not necessary because it’s only beneficial when there is a history of contact or symptoms. Mass testing would not guarantee any infection among the tested because some could be in the early stages. Mass testing is effective if done frequently like every week which is not sustainable and not a guarantee for ensuring no outbreak.

The Ministry, therefore, advises the School administrations to desist from demanding that learners do COVID-19 tests and/or charge any money for COVID-19 testing for learners returning to school.

Where a situation arises and learners in a school need to be tested because of the soaring numbers of symptomatic cases identified through the school surveillance system, the Ministry of Health will undertake this exercise.