Police in Kampala is investigating circumstances under which both private and government health facilities in Uganda are conniving to sell Covid-19 vaccines for a much as shs 300,000 per dose.
Following the outbreak of the second wave of the deadly Coronavirus in Uganda, there was dash by Ugandans to get vaccinated for Coronavirus.
This was highlighted when government announced a vaccination camp at Kololo independence grounds as Ministry of Health records indicated that the number of people who vaccinated per day jumped by over 100 times.
The situation was exacerbated by the running out of the Covid vaccines and according to security this saw some health facilities hide some of the vaccines and in return sold them to members of the public.
The raid
Last week, the Police Directorate of Crime Intelligence which is the intelligence arm of the police force got a tip off of some private health facilities selling Covid vaccines in Kampala.
“After the tip off, we sent our spies who presented themselves as those who wanted to be vaccinated. They were being asked between shs100,000 and shs300,000 each,” Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said on Monday.
According to the Police spokesperson, the operation targeted First Pharmacy, Modern Diagnostic Laboratory, Victoria Hospital and True Care Medical Centre and led to recovery of several items linked to Covid vaccination.
He said 803 vaccines empty bottles, test tubes and 1000 vaccination cards were recovered from the health facilities.
“The empty bottles were supposed to be returned to public hospitals to make accountability. We want to go to health facilities were some of these empty bottles were supposed to be returned to find out if there was conspiracy,”Enanga said.
The Police mouthpiece said the 1000 vaccination cards indicated Kiswa Health Centre and Naguru and Health which are both government facilities.
Police noted that a total of 12 suspects who were found administering vaccines at the four health facilities are in their custody.
“They are being processed for being in possession of government stores illegally, theft and conspiracy to commit a felony,”Enanga said.
Investigations
According to a post by the Nile Post, investigations have been widened to target some government health facilities to find out how the vaccines moved to private health facilities.
Police will also want to find out how many people could have fallen victim to this rackets and how much money involved since they were charging between shs100, 000 and shs300,000 per dose.
Covid vaccines are administered free of charge by both government and private health facilities.
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