KAMPALA – Local leaders and educationists in Northern Uganda have called on government to vaccinate all teachers before institutions of learning are re-opened.
In a meeting the Parliamentary Taskforce committee on Covid-19, Lira District leaders said there were a lot of infections in schools which had an effect on the communities when the learners where sent home when the second lockdown was enforced.
“We observed that when children came back from schools, that is when the elderly began to fall sick in the villages. Schools realised Covid-19 in their schools and they kept quiet,” Said Bosco Ogwang, a member of the Lira University Covid-19 task force.
Ogwang added that students should only go back vaccination of teachers country wide.
Jonam County MP, Emmanuel Ongiertho said since the Parliamentary Committee on Education will ensure that schools that do not declare Covid-19 cases are reprimanded.
The Ag. District Health Officer of Lira, Edmonton Acheka revealed that they registered 11 deaths out of the 365 positive cases in the district.
After traversing Karamoja, Acholi, West Nile and Lango the Parliamentary Covid-19 Task Force observed that districts which have observed the standard operating procedures have low positivity rates.
MPs, however, noted that during the first wave, task forces were very active in tracing contacts, mobilized the communities and enforced SOPs unlike in the current wave were Covid-19 guidelines are flouted.
Recently, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for ICT blamed the west for Uganda’s inability to secure more Covid-19 vaccines.
This followed World Health Organization’s – WHO warning that Africa urgently needed hundreds millions more jabs to fend off a surging third wave of infections.
Baryomunsi, an epidemiologist said Uganda had been able to vaccinate more than a million people but was unable to obtain further shots.
“The problem has been the supply side,” he said, adding that, “We have the money but we simply can’t get the vaccine. This is a challenge of access and equity. We have to rely on the western world and the western world has focused on its population. The impression is that people there don’t care about Africans.”
