HEA Director General Ready for 2nd Dose of COVID-19 Vaccination

Higher Education Authority (HEA) Director General, Prof. Stephen Simukanga, has stated that he is ready to receive the second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on 28^th June, 2021.

Prof. Simukanga, who received his first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine back in April, continues to encourage everyone in the eligible to get vaccinated.

“I took the vaccine back in April and I feel fine,” Prof. Simukanga said, continuing, “moreover the side effects after taking the vaccine were not bad, merely consisting of slight headache for one or two days, which was not as bad as I thought.”

In commenting on what he would say to people afraid of taking the vaccine, the Director General stated that though it was not a cure, the vaccination would reduce the effects of COVID 19 if one got it.

The Director General has stated that vaccination is the best chance that the country has to returning to some semblance of normal but also continuing with health guidelines as prescribed by the Ministry of Health.  

In the Statement issued on Sunday, 23^rd May 2021, the Ministry of Health noted that the proportion of persons testing positive among those investigated through various surveillance platforms including at points-of-entry, healthcare facilities, school surveillance, contact tracing and other cluster settings kept rising, with the daily positivity rising to 2.6% from 2.4%.

Furthermore, MoH reported that a total of 134,095 have been vaccinated, of which 128,450 are AstraZeneca Dose 1 and 5,645 are Sinopharm dose 1. Further, 5,067 of those vaccinated with Sinopharm have received their second dose, which translates to 90% of those vaccinated with Sinopharm.

MoH continues to state that everyone must:

1. Mask up correctly and consistently;
2. Maintain physical distance;
3. Wash their hands frequently with soap and water or use hand sanitizer;
4. Avoid crowded places if possible, particularly super spreader events, or stay at home; and,
5. Seek medical attention early if they are symptomatic.