Category: Traveling in Uganda

Uganda

Uganda receives 864,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines

Posted5 Mar 2021Originally published5 Mar 2021

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Health care providers, security personnel, teachers, journalists, persons aged 50 years and above and those with underlying health conditions to benefit from phase one of vaccination

KAMPALA- Friday, 5 March 2021– The Ministry of Health has today received 864,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, shipped via the COVAX facility—the world’s facility for universal access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The arrival marks a historic step towards the goal to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, in an unprecedented effort to provide at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. Uganda targets to vaccinate 49.6 per cent of the population, which is about 21,936,011, in a phased manner. Each phase is planned to cover 20 per cent of the population – approximately 4.38 million people.

The vaccine doses were received at Entebbe International Airport by Uganda’s Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero accompanied by members of the COVAX Facility and ambassadors of the European Union and countries whose funding enabled manufacturing, transport, and distribution.

COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner. UNICEF is handling the procurement and delivery of the vaccines and related supplies on behalf of the COVAX Facility.

The AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) were transported by UNICEF from India (Mumbai) to Uganda.

The COVAX facility has allocated 3,552,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Uganda for the period of January – June 2021. The remaining 2,688,000 doses are expected by June 2021.

The first phase of the FREE vaccination will target health workers in public and private health facilities who by the nature of their work are at higher risk of contracting the disease compared to other categories of people. Other target groups in order of priority are security personnel; teachers; humanitarian front-line workers, people above 50 years with underlying conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart, kidney, or liver disease; people aged 18-50 with the same underlying conditions; and other emerging high risk and priority essential groups as more vaccine doses arrive in the country.

“The Ministry of Health is finalizing preparations to start vaccination against COVID-19 and with the arrival of the initial batch of 864,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines today, vaccination is scheduled to begin on 10 March 2021,” Dr. Aceng said.

“The arrival of the vaccines in Uganda is a significant moment and a concrete example of global solidarity in action,” said EU Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Attilio Pacifici. “Ever since the outbreak of this unprecedented crisis, which is affecting all of us, the European Union and its Member States have supported Uganda and our other African partners in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Health care providers have been pivotal in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. With their crucial role, dealing with patients, comes the high risk of being infected with the disease. We, therefore, thought it wise to have them immunized first along with teachers to protect them,” said the WHO Representative to Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam.

“We specially want to thank the donor partners including the European Union, the UK Government, The United States of America and others for the support they made to COVAX through GAVI to make this possible,” he added.

UNICEF Representative in Uganda, Dr. Munir Safieldin said, “Today marks an important milestone for Uganda. UNICEF is pleased to be a key partner in the COVAX Facility by ensuring that the vaccines are delivered to the people that need them most.”

“Unless we protect health care providers, health systems will remain overwhelmed, and the most vulnerable children will continue to lose access to life-saving services, risking years of progress and resulting in the poorest children falling further behind. The faster we can combat the pandemic, the faster Uganda can recover, leading to schools re-opening, health centers functioning and ensuring that serious disruptions to children’s lives end,” Safieldin underlined.

The main objective of the National Deployment Vaccination Plan (NDVP) is to vaccinate up to 49.6 per cent of the population in a phased manner. Each phase is intended to cover 20 per cent of the population. The eligible population comprises of individuals 18 years and above.

Notes to Editors

About COVAX

· COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others. It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

· CEPI is focused on the COVAX vaccine research and development portfolio: investing in R&D across a variety of promising candidates, with the goal to support development of three safe and effective vaccines which can be made available to countries participating in the COVAX Facility. As part of this work, CEPI has secured first right of refusal to potentially over one billion doses for the COVAX Facility to a number of candidates, and made strategic investments in vaccine manufacturing, which includes reserving capacity to manufacture doses of COVAX vaccines at a network of facilities, and securing glass vials to hold 2 billion doses of vaccine. CEPI is also investing in the ‘next generation’ of vaccine candidates, which will give the world additional options to control COVID-19 in the future.

· Gavi is focused on procurement and delivery for COVAX: coordinating the design, implementation and administration of the COVAX Facilityand the Gavi COVAX AMC and working with its Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery. The COVAX Facility is the global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines through which COVAX will ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all 190 participating economies, using an allocation framework formulated by WHO. The COVAX Facility will do this by pooling buying power from participating economies and providing volume guarantees across a range of promising vaccine candidates. The Gavi COVAX AMC is the financing mechanism that will support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income countries in the Facility, enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and effective vaccines. Gavi is coordinating and fundraising for the COVAX AMC and its no-fault compensation mechanism, and funding UNICEF procurement of vaccines as well as partners’ and governments work on readiness and delivery, including support cold chain equipment, technical assistance, syringes, vehicles, and other aspects of the vastly complex logistical operation for delivery. UNICEF and the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) will be acting as procurement coordinators for the COVAX Facility, helping deliver vaccines to COVAX AMC participants and others.

· WHO has multiple roles within COVAX: It provides normative guidance on vaccine policy, regulation, safety, R&D, allocation, and country readiness and delivery. Its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization develops evidence-based immunization policy recommendations. Its Emergency Use Listing (EUL) / prequalification programmes ensure harmonized review and authorization across member states. It provides global coordination and member state support on vaccine safety monitoring. It developed the target product profiles for COVID-19 vaccines and provides R&D technical coordination.WHO leads, together with UNICEF, the Country Readiness and Delivery workstream, which provides support to countries as they prepare to receive and administer vaccines. Along with Gavi and numerous other partners working at the global, regional, and country-level, the CRD workstream provides tools, guidance, monitoring, and on the ground technical assistance for the planning and roll-out of the vaccines.Along with COVAX partners, WHO has developed a no-fault compensation scheme as part of the time-limited indemnification and liability commitments.

· UNICEF is leveraging its experience as the largest single vaccine buyer in the world and working with manufacturers and partners on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccine doses, as well as freight, logistics and storage. UNICEF already procures more than 2 billion doses of vaccines annually for routine immunization and outbreak response on behalf of nearly 100 countries. In collaboration with the PAHO Revolving Fund, UNICEF is leading efforts to procure and supply doses of COVID-19 vaccines for COVAX. In addition, UNICEF, Gavi and WHO are working with governments around the clock to ensure that countries are ready to receive the vaccines, with appropriate cold chain equipment in place and health workers trained to dispense them. UNICEF is also playing a lead role in efforts to foster trust in vaccines, delivering vaccine confidence communications and tracking and addressing misinformation around the world.

About CEPI

· CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated ten partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes are leveraging rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.

Before the emergence of COVID-19, CEPI’s priority diseases included Ebola virus, Lassa virus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, Nipah virus, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya virus. CEPI also invested in platform technologies that can be used for rapid vaccine and immunoprophylactic development against unknown pathogens (Disease X).

About Gavi

· Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 developing countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation and reaching the unvaccinated children still being left behind, employing innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organizations that fund Gavi’s work here.

About WHO

· The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.

For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHOon Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube

About UNICEF

·UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone. For more information about UNICEF and its work for children, visit www.unicef.org. For more information about COVID-19, visit www.unicef.org/coronavirus . Find out more about UNICEF’s work on the COVID-19 vaccines here, or about UNICEF’s work on immunization here.

· Follow UNICEF on Twitter and Facebook.

About the ACT-Accelerator

· The Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT-Accelerator, is a new, ground-breaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. It was set up in response to a call from G20 leaders in March and launched by the WHO, European Commission, France and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2020.

· The ACT-Accelerator is not a decision-making body or a new organisation but works to speed up collaborative efforts among existing organisations to end the pandemic. It is a framework for collaboration that has been designed to bring key players around the table with the goal of ending the pandemic as quickly as possible through the accelerated development, equitable allocation, and scaled up delivery of tests, treatments and vaccines, thereby protecting health systems and restoring societies and economies in the near term. It draws on the experience of leading global health organisations which are tackling the world’s toughest health challenges, and who, by working together, are able to unlock new and more ambitious results against COVID-19. Its members share a commitment to ensure all people have access to all the tools needed to defeat COVID-19 and to work with unprecedented levels of partnership to achieve it.

· The ACT-Accelerator has four areas of work: diagnostics, therapeutics, vaccines and the health system connector. Cross cutting all of these is the workstream on Access & Allocation.

Media Contacts

In Ministry of Health: Emmanuel Ainebyoona, Senior Public Relations Officer, +256 779220588, emmabyoona@gmail.com

In WHO: Benjamin Sensasi, Health Promotion Advisor and Communications Officer, +256772507906, sensasib@who.int

Edmond Mwebembezi, Public Information Officer, +256786497073, mwebembezie@who.int

In UNICEF: Catherine Ntabadde, Communication Specialist, +256 772147111, cntabadde@unicef.orgPrimary country

• Uganda

Sources

• GAVI Alliance
• Government of Uganda
• UN Children’s Fund
• World Health Organization

Format

• News and Press Release

Theme

• Health

Disaster type

• Epidemic

Language

• English

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The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has extended the discount on fees for park entrance, birding, gorilla, and chimpanzee permits to end of June to promote visits to the national parks. 

The initial promotion started in December 2020 was scheduled to end this month. 

The extension, officials from UWA and tourism sector say, was occasioned by low tourist visits to the game parks due to the global lockdowns triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“We make reference to our letter dated November 27, 2020 offering promotional prices on park entrance, birding and gorilla permits from December 2020 to date. We have reviewed the performance progress, so far and have agreed to extend this promotion from March to June 2021,” Mr Sam Mawanda, the UWA executive director, said. 

Mr Mawanda says the promotional rates offer 50 per cent discount on park entrance and birding fees each to all national parks and wildlife reserves across the country. 

The normal park entrance fees for foreign non-residents stands at $40 (Shs146,000), while foreign residents pay $30 (Shs110,104).ADVERTISEMENT

Those from the East African region pay Shs20,000 for adults, pupils and students, who visit in groups, pay Shs3,000 each,  and wildlife clubs pay Shs2,000 for category A national parks.
The national parks in this category include Murchison Falls, Kidepo Valley, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi Impenetrable, Mgahinga Gorilla, Kibaale, and Lake Mburo.

Gorilla and chimpanzee fees have also been slashed by about half. According to the promotional rates, East African citizens will pay Shs150,000, foreign residents pay $300 (Shs1.1m), while foreign non-residents will pay $400 (Shs1.5m), down from Shs250,000, $600 (Shs2.2m) and $700 (2.5m), respectively.

East African citizens pay Shs100,000 for chimpanzee permits, foreign residents  pay $100 (Shs366,715), while foreign non- residents pay $150 (Shs550,073) down from Shs150,000, $150 (Shs550,073) and $200 (Shs733,432) for nationals, foreign residents and foreign non-residents.

“The reduction on gorilla and chimpanzee fees will only apply to new purchases between April 1and June 30 and not on reschedules of already deposited on permits ,” Mr Mawanda said.

Mr John Gesa Simplicious, the UWA spokesperson, said the extension is meant to promote domestic tourism and give chance to more Ugandans to visit the parks. ADVERTISEMENT

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I don’t know how to explain this but I’m very happy to see a lady in the East African region rise to presidency

Samia Suluhu Hassan becomes Tanzania’s first female president
Samia Suluhu Hassan has been sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president, following the death of her predecessor John Magufuli. Ms. Hassan has had a meteoric rise in politics and was chosen by Mr. Magufuli as his vice president in 2015.



Samia Suluhu Hassan made history Friday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president two days after the death was announced of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.

Wearing a hijab and holding up a Quran with her right hand, Ms. Hassan took the oath of office at the government offices in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city.

The inauguration was witnessed by Cabinet members and Tanzania’s former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Jakaya Kikwete and former vice president Abeid Karume. The former heads of state were among the few people in the room wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19.


Ms. Hassan succeeds Mr. Magufuli, who had not been seen in public for more than two weeks before his passing was announced. Mr. Magufuli had denied that COVID-19 was a problem in Tanzania, saying that national prayer had eradicated the disease from the country. But weeks before his death, Mr. Magufuli acknowledged the virus was a danger.

A major test of Ms. Hassan’s new presidency will be how she deals with the pandemic. Under Mr. Magufuli, Tanzania, one of Africa’s most populous countries with 60 million people, made no efforts to obtain vaccines or promote the use of masks and social distancing to combat the virus. This policy of ignoring the disease endangers neighboring countries, African health officials warn.


The tutoring revolution: How it could transform education
Although Ms. Hassan announced that Mr. Magufuli died of heart failure, exiled opposition leader Tundu Lissu says the president died of COVID-19, citing informed medical sources in Dar es Salaam.

“The immediate job, the immediate decision she has to make, and she doesn’t have much time for it, is what is she going to do about COVID-19?” Mr. Lissu told The Associated Press in Belgium, where he lives in exile.

“President Magufuli defied the world, defied science, defied common sense in his approach to COVID-19 and it finally brought him down,” said Mr. Lissu.

“President Samia Saluhu Hassan has to decide very soon whether she is changing course or continuing with the same disastrous approach to COVID-19 that her predecessor took,” said Mr. Lissu.

Ms. Hassan must also decide how she will address Mr. Magufuli’s legacy, said Mr. Lissu. He said she must decide to continue with Mr. Magufuli’s policies which took Tanzania from a relatively tolerant democracy to a repressive state. He questioned if she will be able to restore the country’s political freedoms and democracy.

Mr. Lissu went into exile in 2017 after he was shot 16 times. The attack came shortly after Mr. Magufuli said those who were opposed to his economic reforms deserved to die. Mr. Lissu returned to Tanzania to challenge Mr. Magufuli in the Oct. 2020 elections. He lost to Mr. Magufuli in polls marred by violence and widespread allegations of vote-rigging. Mr. Lissu returned to exile, saying his life was in danger.

Speaking at her inauguration, Ms. Hassan gave little indication that she intended to change course from Mr. Magufuli.

“It’s not a good day for me to talk to you because I have a wound in my heart,” said Ms. Hassan, speaking in Swahili. “Today I have taken an oath different from the rest that I have taken in my career. Those were taken in happiness. Today I took the highest oath of office in mourning,” she said.

She said that Mr. Magufuli “who always liked teaching” had prepared her for the task ahead. “Nothing shall go wrong,” she assured, urging the nation’s people to be united.

“This is the time to stand together and get connected. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to one another, and look forward with confidence,” she said. “It is not the time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli aspired to.”

Ms. Hassan will complete Mr. Magufuli’s second term in office which had just started after he won elections in October.

Ms. Hassan has had a meteoric rise in politics in a male-dominated field. Both Tanzania and the surrounding East African region are slowly emerging from patriarchy.

After Mr. Magufuli selected her as his running mate in 2015, Ms. Hassan became Tanzania’s first female vice president. She was the second woman to become vice president in the region since Uganda’s Specioza Naigaga Wandira, who was in office from 1994 to 2003.

Born in Zanzibar, Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago in 1960, Ms. Hassan went to primary school and secondary school at a time when very few girls in Tanzania were getting educations as many parents thought a woman’s place was that of wife and homemaker.

After graduating from secondary school in 1977, Ms. Hassan studied statistics and started working for the government, in the Ministry of Planning and Development. She worked for a World Food Program project in Tanzania in 1992 and then attended the University of Manchester in London to earn a postgraduate diploma in economics. In 2005, she got a Master’s degree in community economic development through a joint program between the Open University of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the United States.

Ms. Hassan went into politics in 2000 when she became a member of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. In 2010 she won the Makunduchi parliamentary seat with more than 80% percent of the vote. In 2014 she was appointed a Cabinet minister and became Vice-Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution for Tanzania where she won respect for deftly handling several challenges.

As president, Ms. Hassan’s first task will be to unite the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, behind her, said Ed Hobey-Hamsher, Senior Africa Analyst with Verisk Maplecroft risk analysts. The party has been in power since Tanzania’s independence.

As a Muslim woman from Zanzibar, Ms. Hassan may find it difficult to win the support of the party’s mainland Christians, he said, warning that some entrenched leaders may develop “obstructionist strategies” against her. He said it’s likely that Ms. Hassan will start her rule by maintaining the status quo and not embarking on a significant Cabinet reshuffle.

Ms. Hassan is the second woman in East Africa to serve as the head of government. Burundi’s Sylvia Kiningi served as president of that tiny landlocked country for nearly four months until Feb. 1994.

Most importantly keep safe by social distancing and washing and sanitizing your hands .

Some of the things I learned during my training :

Venturing into online marketing .

Making sure your business can be located on google maps.

Setting up a strategic email signature .

THE 7 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL ONLINE SALES

1. Great Digital Content
2. A Professional Website & Mobile Site   + CORE ASSETS
3. Search Engines
4. Affiliate Partners (Free & Paid)
5. Leveraging Google Places (Maps)
6. Use Online Travel Agents (OTAs)
7. Use Social Media / User Feedback

These are some of the tools I am so happy to have learned how to be present online I am sure 2021 is bringing very fruitful results I am loving who I am becoming .