President Yoweri Museveni has once again reiterated the country will not go under lockdown because of the latest Ebola outbreak.
“Regarding the Ebola situation, first of all, there will be NO LOCKDOWN. Therefore, people should go ahead and concentrate on their work without worry,” the president said on Friday.
He however, urged individuals to exercise vigilance and ensure they observe the Standard Operating Procedures in place as one way of containing the spread of the virus.
Museveni made the remarks while commissioning the new National Medical stores and office Complex in Kajjansi. He said the facility will go a long way in boosting local production of drugs and vaccines.
“Now that the facility is here with an improved procurement, warehousing, and delivery monitoring system in place, let us solve the last mile benefit for the needs of our people, the region and Africa,” Museveni said.
“This achievement places Africa a step further in the pursuit of meaningful contributions to the global pathogenic economy. We are determined to get out of dependency on the issue of drugs and vaccines, we, therefore, intend to make them here,” he added.
The modern Pharmaceutical warehouse and cold chain storage facility is expected to provide 30,000 more storage space for essential medicines and health supplies.
According to Dr. Diana Atwine the Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, the facility will also house offices for staff, an Oxygen plant with capacity to produce 100 cylinders per day, a 300kw solar system that will provide over 50% of the warehouse power requirements and natural lighting.”
The warehouse will also have a Central vaccine workshop for repair of vaccine refrigerators from Health Facilities, a vehicle garage for routine service, basic repairs of NMS fleet,” Dr. Atwine said.
This has been achieved with 60% funding from Govt of Uganda and 40% from Global Fund according to Dr. Atwine.