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Worrying News  from Uganda :  Over 800 people received fake Covid-19 vaccines

Worrying News  from Uganda :  Over 800 people received fake Covid-19 vaccines

Worrying News  from Uganda :  Over 800 people received fake Covid-19 vaccines

/ Santé / Saturday, 10 July 2021 20:26

source photo: Anadolu agency

 

By Kabakura Jean Bosco Ceusi 

More than 800 people and an undisclosed number of clients of several companies in Kampala Metropolitan Area received fake Covid-19 jabs last month.

Some of the recipients have since died in the second wave of the pandemic.
Dr Wallen Naamara, the head of State House Health Monitoring Unit, told media in a press conference that the people who took the fake Covid jabs should not worry because it is possible that the fraudsters could have simply used water they put in stolen bottles. 
 
Dr Naamara told a press conference in Kampala that the suspects, including a doctor, who is currently on the run, duped several people and companies and injected them with fake vaccines between May 15 and June 17.  
Yesterday, State House detectives  arrested two nurses from Nakawa, Kampala, on accusations of vaccinating people using a suspected fake vaccine. 

“The  labels of this vaccine are suspected to have either been stolen from somewhere or manufactured in Nasser Road in Kampala however they did not pass the right channels of the government. 
  Almost all the vaccines of Covid-19 are 5mls, but this one doesn’t look like 5mls, it’s actually more, the cap of the vial is so tampered with that it looks like a fake vaccine,” Dr Naamara said.

 

Oeil d'humanité heard that on June 17 a joint health intelligence team  raided Kiswa Health Centre, a vaccination centre in Nakawa Division - Kampala, and discovered that the nurses were charging people between Shs100,00 and Shs 200,000 for each dose of  Covid-19 vaccin.  

During the operation, the detectives confiscated a book with a list of people who have been vaccinated with a drug that did not pass through the right channels of government. The book contained names of people and serial numbers of certificates awarded to those who had been vaccinated.

 Dr Naamara said that “They got a social media story and information from the Resident District Commissioner for Nakawa about people who were carrying out Covid-19 vaccinations. The police has been informed , as well as the State House intelligence team and Chieftaincy of Military intelligence to do undercover work. In the process, two nurses, who were vaccinating people in corporate institutions with Covid-19 vaccine, were arrested and taken to Jinja Road Police Station for investigations,” Dr Naamara, however, said that the arrested nurses revealed  that they were receiving the vaccine from Dr Francis Baguma, who is also on the run.

The detained nurses were found with seals belonging to the Kampala Capital City Authority and Kiswa Health Centre.  They were in possession of  150 vaccination cards, vaccine carriers and nine vials of Covid-19 vaccines, representing  ninety doses . They also had absorbent cotton, medical examination gloves and a note book containing the names of vaccinated people from various institutions.
The nurses had the identification tags of the Kampala Capital City Authority and consent forms. Yet  when we contacted KCCA, the Authority denied them being their officials.

Dr Naamara said they have retrieved a record of different offices and companies where the nurses carried out the vaccination exercise. Such companies include Dott Services, Diamond Trust Bank, United Bank of Africa , Tororo Cement, Uganda Bati,  Madhvani, Seven Hills, Dot  Maxs Packaging,  and the names of more than 800 individuals.
He added that whereas the Ministry of Health offers free vaccination services, the vaccination at Kiswa Health Centre was being administered at a fee,  each doze ranging from Shs100,000 to Shs200,000.

Ms Sheila Nduhukire, the NMS spokesperson, said: “Our drugs are labelled by the government of Uganda , National Medical Stores, therefore, if the drugs don’t have those features, then they are not ours,” she said.

Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, said Kiswa Health Centre is among the official vaccination centres in Nakawa.
When we asked him on the suspected stolen Covid-19 batch that was discovered by the State House Health Monitoring Unit, he said he was not aware of the information, and added
“I will  find out more about the stolen batch of vaccine with the relevant authorities”.

Dr Naamara  said that when they contacted the National Medical Stores to prove the authenticity of the suspected drugs, they confirmed that the batch was not imported in the country.
The Resident City Commissioner of Nakawa Division, Mr Herbert Burora’ said “Vaccination is for all of us, therefore, corporate companies should co-operate with government in order to get  the right vaccine”.

 

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