Uganda has finally received 196,800 doses of the Johnson & Johnson Vaccines.
The incumbent Permanent Secretary for the Uganda Ministry of Health, Dr. Diana Atwine Kanzira said, “This is the first batch of the 9 million doses of vaccines being procured through AVAT, an African Union platform formed to secure vaccines for African countries on the world market.” “J&J is a single shot vaccine , effective against COVID 19,” Dr. Diana added.
The Janssen Covid-19 vaccine or better known as Johnson and Johnson(J&J) Covid-19 vaccine was developed in Leiden Netherlands by Jansenn Vaccines and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, an American Company.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), had earlier this year reported that the vaccine was 66.3% effective on clinical trials of Covid 19 infected persons with no prior infection of the virus and that the protection from the virus was most prevalent after 2 weeks of vaccination
Following the presidential directive to vaccinate only those above 18 years of age and the vulnerable persons, a nation-wide campaign has been running to get as many people vaccinated in this category as possible. However, since more vaccines have arrived, there is enough for the campaign to be stretched out to every individual.
“We have been running this campaign for the last 6 months focussing on specific groups but now that vaccines have become more available, we are opening up to everyone to get vaccinated,“ the Permanent Secretary said.
Dr. Diana called upon the community leaders to be accountable for the vaccination of the people in their communities and encourage them to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“We also appeal to the leaders to mobilize and rally people to go and get vaccinated. This war will not end, economies will not safely open, children will not safely go back to schools, unless we vaccinate our population,” she said.