Even when Uganda is struggling to get enough vaccines for its population, in order to vaccinate them against COVID-19, a total of 14,460 COVID-19 vaccine doses were wasted.
Uganda, at first received 964,000 AstraZeneca vaccines doses in March and has been able to vaccinate 748,676 people, however, according to the health ministry, many of the doses were wasted because the vials of the vaccines were opened and not used, which makes them lose their effectiveness, according to scientists.
Previously the health ministry had urged health workers to avoid wasting vaccines by ensuring that they first register enough people before they start vaccinating people, because each vial can vaccinate 10-12 people.
Dr Alfred Driwale, the head of the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization-UNPEI attributes the wastage to poor vaccination coordination.
He says often health workers opened vaccine vials without having at least 10 people present at the vaccination sites. As a result, few people were vaccinated and the remaining doses in the vials thrown away because they were not used within six hours of being opened.
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