As the pandemic continues to torment peoples

Basically, the way the virus works is that it invades our living cells and holds what constitutes those cells hostage to get energy and replicate, and thereby find ways to infect other living organisms and start the process over again.

This makes Covid-19 something of a traveler. For when people move, it also moves.

That said, we cannot proceed without looking at how this traveler impacted family planning and the lives of our adolescents. Namely by:

The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions caused worry that adolescents wouldn’t be able to access family planning commodities and services.
Data reveal that pandemic-related disruptions to adolescent access to sexual and reproductive health services were fewer than were initially anticipated.
After an initial fall in family planning services, we witnessed an increase in family planning visits among adolescent women during the remainder of 2020.
The health system continued to provide services with the help of actions by partners to support access to reproductive health supplies and services.

With the above considerations in mind and on the ground, the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders must not take their foot off the pedal when it comes to adolescents’ continued access to sexual and reproductive health services. Thus, they are advised to:

To keep a record of the processes that helped ensure continuity of services during the COVID-19 restrictions, so such processes may be re-adopted and adapted to future demands.
The youth have to be meaningfully involved in COVID-19 task forces so that the policies adopted reflect gender-inclusion and young people’s sexual and reproductive health needs.
Contraceptive care should be classified as an essential service in the COVID-19 response interventions, so it remains active regardless of another lockdown

Beyond contraceptive care, it makes sense that the government of Uganda has said it will block access to places of worship, schools, markets, hotels, restaurants, bars and all public places to those who are not fully vaccinated now the economy is almost fully open.

Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Minister for ICT and National Guidance, said that the cabinet decided that this measure was necessary to curb the spread of Covid-19.

“We (cabinet) approved a recommendation from the Ministry of Health to extend the vaccination mandate to different categories of workers. A vaccine mandate means if you are not vaccinated, businesses, schools or workspaces and others can legally stop you from accessing their services if they choose to,” Dr. Chris Baryomunsi said.

“This means that we (government) shall not compel Ugandans to get vaccinated. Getting vaccinated is voluntary but workplaces, business premises, organizers of events have rights legally to stop you from accessing those areas if you have not been vaccinated,” he added.

As the specter of Omicron, a variant of Covid-19, looms large over the nation the Ministry of Health says that these new measures are essential in warding off the threat of Omicron.

The Ministry of Health is saying these new restrictions must begin with unvaccinated Cabinet members, MPs, Health Workers, Security Officers and Social Workers. This will set the tone for managing the new Covid-19 variant by having leaders and persons in authority serve as examples for everyone else to follow.

This decision of letting the first come first in taking responsibility against the virus replicates, if you like, the behavior of the virus itself whose variants have been named in the order of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Almost as if there's a method to the madness of viral infection, hence there should be a method to our response to this virus.

Accordingly, the ministry has approved Covid-19 booster shots for people aged 50 years and above, along with those with comorbidities.

Comorbidities are the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.

The booster shot is to further enhance the immunity of both of the said categories after a period of six months from their primary vaccination.

The ministry of health says that it has evaluated research findings of immunities in decline between 6-8 weeks after full vaccination elsewhere in the world, these findings point to the need for the said booster doses.

In a letter signed by Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the ministry approved the “mix-and-match” approach, giving booster-eligible people the option of getting a new dose of any approved Covid vaccine.

So far, according to the ministry of health, three types of vaccines are considered in the mix and match.

And these are namely, 1. Viral Vector Vaccines which contain instructions for making coronavirus antigens e.g., AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson

2. mRNA vaccines which use a code from SARS CoV2 to prompt an immune response in recipients for instance Pfizer and Moderna

3. Inactivated vaccines where the SARS CoV2 is inactivated or killed using chemicals, heat or radiation for instance Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Still, we can’t lose sight of the fact that although there is an evident surge in Covid-19 infections in Uganda, below 200 persons are currently hospitalized due to the virus according to records from the Ministry of Health.

It has been revealed that, as of December 25, over 148 positive persons have been hospitalised countrywide despite over 5,400 cases reported in the week 20-26 December 2021.

The Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital and also the head of the Covid-19 treatment facility, Dr. Rose Byanyima, says those admitted to treatment facilities across the country do not reflect the growing number of positive cases in Uganda.

“At Mulago, we have 30 patients admitted as of yesterday and of these only 2 are admitted to the ICU while others are at the High Dependency Unit. We are seeing fewer patients at the moment compared to before, but this situation can easily change,” she said.

However, Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) health emergencies programme, believes, “There’s no doubt that the rising number and the force of infection will generate more hospitalizations in the coming weeks.”

Maybe we should go forward to Ancient Greeks, once more.

The Ancient Greeks came up with the miasmatic theory of disease to explain certain diseases such as the Black Death and cholera.

Miasma is the ancient Greek word for “bad air” or pollution. It was therefore believed that unhygienic conditions caused these diseases and so they could be prevented through good hygiene habits.

Viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can be spread by hand contact. People can catch it by being literally in touch with an infected person and afterwards touching their noses or mouths with their hands. That’s why they need to be hygienic.

This minimises our contact with pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, like SARS-CoV-2 or the flu virus (influenza). That includes washing our hands and keeping our home clean and keeping a sanitary distance from each other in the form of social distancing.

Research provided by a team led by Guttmacher Institute