Uganda to give 1.6 million Pfizer vaccine doses from next week

Uganda plans to start offering the Pfizer Inc. coronavirus vaccine starting next week after receiving 1.67 million doses from the U.S. 

The shots also developed by BioNTech SE will be available only in the Kampala Metropolitan region because of a lack of adequate cold-storage capacity in districts far from the capital, Ministry of Health spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona said by phone on Tuesday.

Uganda, with a population of about 42 million people, has so far administered about 1.8 million doses and the government plans to inoculate half of its people before fully reopening the economy.

The East African nation has so far received about 4.5 million Covid-19 vaccines, mostly AstraZeneca Plc doses via the Covax initiative.