KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandan authorities are seeking to legally mandate vaccines in draft legislation aimed at boosting the East African country’s drive to inoculate more people against COVID-19.
The proposed bill, which is subject to changes as it faces scrutiny by a parliamentary health committee, calls for a six-month jail term for failure to comply with vaccination requirements during disease outbreaks.
“It is the right thing to do,” said Alfred Driwale, a public official who leads Uganda’s vaccination efforts, speaking of the proposed changes to the country’s public health law.
Attempts by Ugandan officials in recent months to enforce limited mandates have been unsuccessful. A vaccine requirement for people using public transport faced opposition from operators, and bars have returned to business after an extended lockdown without strict adherence to pandemic-era rules.
Uganda’s health minister announced in January that more than 400,000 vaccine doses were to be destroyed after they expired before being used. That’s a considerable loss to a government that has administered only about 12.7 million doses and whose goal is to inoculate at least half of its 44 million people.
