At least more than 800 people and undisclosed number of clients from 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
Daily Monitor that the people who took the fake Covid jabs shouldn’t get
worried because there is a possibility that the fraudsters could have
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.
State House
detectives yesterday arrested two nurses from Nakawa, Kampala, on
accusations of vaccinating people using a suspected fake vaccine.
“The
contents of labels of this vaccine are suspected to have either been
stolen from somewhere or manufactured from Nasser Road in Kampala but
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 top of the vial is so tempered with and it looks
like a fake vaccine,” Dr Naamara said.
Daily Monitor understands
that a joint health intelligence team on June 17 raided Kiswa Health
Centre, a vaccination centre in Nakawa Division, Kampala, and found that
the nurses there were charging people between Shs100,00 and Shs200,000
for each dose to vaccinate against Covid-19.
During the operation,
the detective impounded 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 had names of person and serial numbers of
certificates awarded to those who had been vaccinated.
“We got a
social media story and information from the Resident District
Commissioner for Nakawa about people who were carrying out Covid-19
vaccination. We informed the police, State House intelligence team and
Chieftaincy of Military intelligence to do undercover work. In the
process, two nurses, who were vaccinating individuals, people in
corporate institutions with Covid-19 vaccine, were arrested and taken to
Jinja Road Police Station for investigations,” he said.
Dr Naamara,
however, said the arrested nurses revealed to security that they were
receiving the vaccine from Dr Francis Baguma, who is also on the run.
The
detained nurses were found with stamps belonging to Kampala Capital
City Authority and Kiswa Health Centre. They had 150 pieces of
vaccination cards, vaccine carriers and nine vials of Covid-19 vaccines,
which were ninety dozes. They also had absorbent cotton, medical
examination gloves and a note book of the names of vaccinated people
from different institutions.
The nurses had the identification tags
of Kampala Capital City Authority, consent forms and when we contacted
KCCA, they 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 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, with 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 State House Health Monitoring Unit, he said he was not aware of the
information.
“I am going to find out more about the batch with relevant authorities,” he said.
Dr
Naamara, however, said when they contacted 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 work with government such
that they are given the right vaccine,” he said.
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