President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has granted a request by the Chinese Community of Investors in Kapeeka Industrial Park to authorize the ‘urgent’ importation of 4,000 doses of SARS-Cov-2 Inactivated Vaccine (VeroCell).
According to a letter senior medical affairs advisor Dr Joseph Okia wrote to National Drug Authority (NDA) secretary and executive director Dr David Nahamya seeking emergency/compassionate use authorization for importation of the vaccine, the SARS-Cov-2 Inactivated Vaccine (VeroCell) is “to be used strictly for the Chinese nationals affiliated with the Industrial Park and their families.”
This will in the Lao Shen Industrial Park.
Dr Okia also informed Dr Nahamya that “H.E The President supports the idea.”
The presidential advisor then asked the NDA secretary to “work out a mechanism to have these vaccines cleared for importation on compassionate use authorization.”
In the same letter dated November 26, Okia also requested Nahamya to get in touch with Zhang Hao, the managing director of the Liao Shan (referred elsewhere as Lao Shen) Industrial Park, Kapeeka, or Nampoomba to ensure that the life-saving vaccines are procured.
On December 03, health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng then wrote to the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China asking it to “kindly avail [the] exit strategy for the importation of the vaccine as we look towards stopping people from catching coronavirus or making the virus less deadly.”
Aceng told the Chinese Health Commission that “for transportation and use of the vaccine, Sinoafrica Medicines and Health Ltd was designated to procure the vaccine from China National Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (Sinopharm) or from Sinovac Research and Development Co Ltd, the vaccine manufacturers, and import to Uganda, for Lao Shen Industrial Park and its operators of strictly Chinese origin.”
