All persons, including staff, will not gain access to the Ministry of Health offices without proof of COVID-19 vaccination, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry’s spokesperson has said. 

This comes a few hours after the National Medical Stores (NMS) issued a statement requiring all visitors and staff to present proof of full vaccination before they can gain admission into its premises. 

“As a government agency mandated to buy, store and distribute medicines, we are leading by example and ensuring that all our staff and visitors coming to our premises are fully vaccinated to comply with the president’s directive on full COVID-19 vaccination”. 

We, therefore, expect all our staff and visitors to comply with these new measures to avoid any inconveniences,” the NMS statement read.

 Ainebyoona, in sharing the NMS statement on his Twitter handle, noted that they too are soon swinging the axe. 

“The Ministry of Health is soon expected to enforce the same for its staff and visitors at the headquarters. We have given some grace period for those not yet vaccinated to do so,” he said. 

To date, Uganda has received 5,690,363 COVID-19 varied vaccines doses. Out of this only 2,378,171 doses have been utilized countrywide. 

The Ministry of Health has ramped up the vaccination campaign by involving local musicians to mobilise Ugandans to take up the vaccines.

 On Wednesday, October 13, while giving a national update on the COVID-19 situation in the country, the Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng noted that the uptake is still low with many Ugandans hesitating to take the jab. 

Meanwhile, last month Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance warned public officers from blocking unvaccinated persons and staff from accessing government offices. 

“As a policy, we do not stop anybody from accessing the government office on basis of vaccination status, but people should observe the SOPs, sanitise and wash hands. No government officer should stop anybody from accessing the offices on the basis of vaccination,” he said. 

He explained that the government has not yet provided enough vaccines to cover every Ugandan. Therefore, it would be wrong to block government employees from accessing their offices.