BY DENIS EDEMA
Jinja City is experiencing an unprecedented demand for Covid-19 vaccines, after residents heeded to the local leaders’ pleas to take the jab.
This also comes days to the expiry of over 67,000 unused doses.
Over the weekend, the deputy Resident City Commissioner pleaded with residents to embrace the exercise and save his job.
Peter Banya’s plea comes after President Museveni, in his televised address to the nation on Wednesday last week, warned that he would fire district leaders that fail to exhaust the tens of thousands of vaccines at risk of expiry.
He now tells KFM that the positive response has pushed up high demand for the Covid-19 vaccines, majority being teachers who had not received the first dose.
Banya says they now need at least 500,000 doses to meet the growing demand in both the city and the rural areas.
So far, he says, about 9,000 people in Jinja city have been fully vaccinated, while 19,000 have received the first dose.
Banya has also revealed plans to have mobile clinics in villages and with the help of Village Health Teams [VHTs] to have those who cannot travel long distances to be vaccinated.