The Senior Presidential Advisor for Special Operations Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has received his first Covid-19 Vaccine, encouraging all officers and men to embrace it so that they can resume their normal operations like training and operations without the threat of COVID-19.
Gen Kainerugaba who is also the Commander of the Special Forces Command (SFC) received the Covid-19 jab at the SFC headquarters in Entebbe on Tuesday morning.
Brig Dr Stephen Kusasira, the Director of Medical Services in the UPDF also received his COVID-19 vaccine jab after Gen Kainerugaba, both initiating the campaign to have all soldiers and their families vaccinated.
Gen Kainerugaba thanked President Museveni and the government in general for its quick acquisition of the vaccine. Gen Kainerugaba also commended Uganda’s partners that have enabled a fast rollout of the vaccine in just a year.
Before the vaccination which also saw senior SFC soldiers vaccinated, Brig Kusasira explained that the vaccine is safe despite some minor side effects such as fever and the usual injection pain.
Gen Kainerugaba told the senior officers to encourage other soldiers to get vaccinated against the virus that has so far killed 334 Ugandans and close to three million worldwide.
Shortly after receiving his COVID jab, Gen Kainerugaba tweeted: “Today, it was my pleasure to open the covid-19 vaccination campaign within SFC by taking my first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine. I thank H.E. @kagutamuseveni, the Ministry of Health and our development partners for the quick acquisition and rollout of this vaccine. MK.”
The General’s Vaccination follows claims by Daily Monitor newspaper that President Museveni and his inner circle had been vaccinated against covid-19 even before the first batch of the vaccines arrived in the country.
The report insinuated that President Museveni, his family members, and close associates had been vaccinated.
While addressing the nation on Sunday, the President said he would get some money for his party through the courts of law if the newspaper doesn’t apologize to him.
Uganda on Wednesday rolled out the first phase of a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination. So far, over 5,000 Ugandans have received their shots. At least 29 million Ugandans will be vaccinated at the end of the entire exercise.
The country received a second batch of 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 7 from the government of India as a donation, to add to the initial acquisition of 864,000 doses through the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) facility on March 5.
According to the country’s Ministry of Health, the first phase of vaccination will go on until March 19, and cover 950,000 frontline workers including health workers, security personnel, teachers and journalists.
Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng was the first to receive the jab.
Credit: Kampala Post