Hamis Kiggundu Finally Hands Over Shs530 Million Cash To Government For Covid-19 Vaccine Procurement

Posted by: lukwago J in Uganda news July 3, 2021

After total assurance by Prime Minister over government capacity to account for covid-19 donations by Prime Minister Rose, Kampala City tycoon Hamis Kiggundu has finally handed over shs530 million to the government to procure covid-19 Vaccines.

Kiggundu in parting message asked corporate companies to emulate him on extending support to government to drive off covid 19 pandemic in the country.

“I “I call upon my fellow business men and the corporate entities to allocate money in their Corporate Social Responsibility drives to contribute towards covid 19 Vaccines procurement so that the country controls the spread of covid in the country. Under Ham Enterprises I have handed over shs530 million to government and this will go along way to purchase covid 19 Vaccines to for the entire country, “Hamis Kiggundu said.

Kiggundu recently donated assortment of radio microphones and reflector jackets to Kampala City traders association for covid 19 mass sensitization drives in Kampala before total lockdown

He advised office of prime minister to liase with the private sector to support government in covid fights.

Uganda is under going 42 days lockdown following President Yoweri Museveni directive on strict lockdown measures with no business operations in Kampala Central business district including the closure of schools and the suspension of inter-district travel to help beat back a surge in COVID-19 cases in the East African country.

Museveni says this assessment of their impact will then help the government decide whether to ease or prolong them, he added.

Uganda implemented one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, but it was gradually lifted as cases slowed to a trickle.

Infections spiked since last month

Last month however infections started to spike and new cases, particularly among younger people, have surged, fueling fears that the country could slip into an out-of-control second wave.

Museveni said in a televised address on Sunday night that a second wave gripping the country was “diffuse and sustained”.

The government, he said, was worried the jump in cases would “exhaust the available bed space and oxygen supply in hospitals unless we constitute urgent public health measures”.

“In this wave the intensity of severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients and death is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic,” he said.

COVID-19 infections in Uganda are on an average daily basis at their peak, with 825 new infections reported each day, according to a Reuters analysis.

From January to April the positivity rate in tested samples was mostly below 3% but the rate started climbing sharply last month, hitting 18% on June 2, according to Ministry of Health data.

The east African country has thus far reported nearly 53,000 positive cases and 383 deaths.

The new restrictions potentially threaten to arrest an already fragile economic recovery from the blow inflicted by last year’s lockdown.

Those restrictions contributed to a 1.1% economic contraction in 2020, but the finance ministry had projected before Sunday’s new measures that growth would climb to between 4-5% in the fiscal year starting July.

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