Kampala.- About 800 people received one or more injections of fake vaccines against Covid-19 on Uganda, a scam carried out by “unscrupulous” doctors and nurses, authorities announced Wednesday.
The bogus vaccines, sometimes mixed with water, were administered between May and June, amidst a wave of infections by coronavirus in the country, with an average of 1,700 new cases daily.
The scammers were targeting people willing to pay for their vaccines when doses were in short supply in Uganda, said Warren Naamara, health services supervisor in the presidency.
“Unscrupulous people, with the intention of making money, deceived the public with fake vaccines against Covid-19,” Naamara told AFP.
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“Two health workers were arrested and a doctor is on the run,” he explained.
The analyzes showed that the vials did not contain any dangerous products and that “there was only water in some of them,” said the official.
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The scammers charged the equivalent of $ 25 to $ 120 per injection.
Since the start of the pandemic, Uganda has recorded 91,162 cases and 2,425 deaths from coronavirus, according to the latest tally by authorities on Wednesday.
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