Following the full reopening of schools, the Government has hired an additional 2,900 primary and secondary school teachers to help learners catch up on lost time, Matia Kasaija, the minister of finance, planning and economic development (MoFPED), has disclosed.
While presenting a largely post COVID-19 budget speech at Kololo Independence grounds, on Tuesday, he said that during the pandemic, learning continued with the provision of home-learning materials across the country, a situation they had to change by hiring more manpower.
He said Government also had to strengthen health care systems, including regional and national referral hospitals by equipping 143 Intensive Care Units (ICUs), upgrading 255 Health Centre IIs to Health Centre IIIs, and recruiting 400 health workers.
“We also had to fund scientific research and development, including COVID-19 vaccines development and innovative therapeutics such as COVIDEX” he said.
Kasaija said the Government implemented several measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on households and businesses.
“These measures were aimed primarily at keeping Ugandans alive and also to restore business activity. To date, the outcomes of these measures included health and social support response where the Government implemented robust actions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on households.
“We moved to enforce COVID-19 SOPs and guidelines, and free mass vaccination. In this effort, a total of 16 million people, equivalent to 72% of the targeted 22 million persons have received at least one dose,” said Kasaija.
He added that they also made a provision of sh53.5b as cash relief grants to adversely affected people, including boda-boda riders, salon workers, food vendors, private school teachers, ghetto residents, and street vendors.
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