Loyce Twikirize is 18 years old and lives in Kabale district with her parents and siblings. She received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on January 10, 2022, and the second dose on March 24, 2022.

"I received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine because I know that it will protect me from being admitted to hospital because of COVID-19,” Loyce says.

Like Loyce, more than 498,199 people have been mobilized to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the second round of the Mass Vaccination Campaign in the Ankole Region so that they are fully protected against severe COVID-19 and dying from COVID-19.

With financial support from the Governments of Ireland and Norway, the World Health Organization (WHO), supported the first and second rounds of the Accelerated Mass Vaccination Campaign (AMVC) in selected regions aimed at reducing severe COVID-19 illnesses and death, thus reducing pressure on the health system through increased vaccine coverage.

The Ankole region began the vaccination exercise on March 12, 2021. "The exercise was not easy at first due to limited knowledge and misinformation in the community about vaccines and their effects," noted Dr Nelson Wandera, the COVID-19 vaccination exercise leader at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.

The Accelerated Mass Vaccination Campaign (AMVC) has played an important role in increasing vaccine uptake in the districts. "Over time and through the awareness generated by the implementation of AMVC, communities have become increasingly mobilized to receive the vaccines," Dr Nelson emphasized.

"WHO and development partners, including Irish and Norwegian governments, have supported the Ministry of Health to expedite the rollout of the vaccines to eligible unvaccinated persons, to ensure completion of primary vaccination series of partially vaccinated persons aged 18 years and above including 12 to 17-year-old with chronic diseases, and providing booster doses to high-risk eligible populations." - Dr Annet Kisakye, Immunization Officer at the WHO Uganda country office.

The AMVC in Kabale region achieved coverage of 77% (642,881) for the first dose and 40% (449,365) for fully vaccinated people respectively. Other regions supported include Mbale, West Nile, Bunyoro, Kabarole, Karamoja. In Mbale, WHO and the Norwegian government helped reach 394,189 people with the first dose of the vaccine and 387,639 people fully vaccinated. This is an improvement over the 127,193 and 30,512 people who were vaccinated with the first dose and the second dose respectively.

In Karamoja, the Government of Ireland and WHO supported the Ministry of Health, through the two rounds of the Accelerated Mass Vaccination Campaign, which resulted in an increase in coverage from 16% to 51% (287,854 people) with the first dose of vaccine, and from 5% to 41% (238,245 people) for fully vaccinated people.

Although the mass vaccination campaign played an important role in increasing vaccine use in the country, some challenges were faced in the vaccine administration phase.

"We are facing the problem of data backlog in the Karamoja region. There is a need for additional human resources to support data entry into the DHIS2 online platform," explained Dr Kenneth Kabali, Coordinator of the WHO field office in the Karamoja region.

The National vaccination plan has increased access to the COVID-19 vaccine by the eligible population in Uganda through an accelerated mass immunization campaign. Special attention is also given to high-priority vulnerable groups, using a phased approach approved by the Ministry of Health Strategic Policy Committee. 

In each district, interventions are implemented according to identified gaps and district priorities, in line with the national COVID-19 immunization roll-out plan. Interventions are largely aimed at improving activities that promote safe access to immunization by the community and address the risk posed by COVID-19 during the exercise.