Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni still appears undecided on taking the coronavirus vaccine almost a week after his country began a nationwide Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccination campaign.
Appearing on national television on Sunday evening, 76-year old Museveni said he was still unsure which of the vaccines to take, an attitude many of his compatriots see as a barely masked reluctance.
“I’m …looking at which of the vaccines should I go for – the Johnson & Johnson, the Chinese, the Russian” he told Ugandans thousands of whom have been vaccinated already.
His “careful” position is in sharp contrast to other leaders across the continent who were seen in recent weeks publicly taking the jab in a bid to dispel skepticism borne by conspiracy theories about the vaccine’s real purpose.
African presidents that have publicly taken the jab include South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo, Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, Senegal’s Macky Sall and The Gambia’s Adama Barrow.
Health minister Jane Ruth Aceng became the first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine injection when Uganda launched its inoculation campaign last Wednesday.
Since then thousands of its health workers as well as ordinary citizens have been administered the AstraZeneca jabs in a phased vaccination campaign.
Uganda which is targeting to vaccinate 49.6 percent of its 44.7 million people currently has 864,000 vaccine doses from the Covax scheme.
The Health ministry said a further 2,688,000 doses are expected in the country in June.
Uganda has 40,581 cases of Covid-19, 334 fatalities from the respiratory illness and 15,095 recoveries.
WN/as/APA