Government is in need of an additional Shillings 652 billion to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 pandemic in the financial year 2022/2023, but the item remains as unfunded priority, the health minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng has said.

As of April 15, 2022, statistics available from the Ministry of Health indicate that there have been 164,055 cumulative infections and 3,596 coronavirus-related deaths reported since the pandemic began in the country in March 2020.

Dr. Aceng made the request while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee to defend the 2022/2023 ministerial budget estimates on Tuesday. She explains that the money would be spent on the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

She explained that the positivity rate for Uganda currently stands at 0.9 percent, that 68 percent of 22 million Ugandans have received more than one doze of the vaccines which includes AstraZeneca, Modena or Johnson and Johnson.

Dr. Aceng disclosed that basing on the progress, government intends to set aside 73.11 billion for COVID-19 vaccination, 24 billion will go towards purchase of the vaccines, while 2.8 billion for procurement of powder free vaccination gloves, and 7.1 billion will facilitate the National Medical Stores-NMS to cover costs of handling the vaccines.

According to documents tabled before the Committee that URN accessed, 84 billion that was meant for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines was removed from the NMS budget and allocated to other sectors.

In the 2022/2023 national budget, the health sector has been allocated 3.58 trillion, and of this, 1.03 trillion will go towards payment of wages, 928.400 billion for non-wage recurrent, 270.509 billion on development and 1.353 trillion is expected to come from external funding.