The Government of Denmark through the Danish Embassy in Uganda has extended a grant worth 5 billion Uganda, Shillings, to the Government of Uganda through the World Health Organization (WHO) towards the implementation of the COVID-19 Resurgence Response Plan developed by the Ministry of Health.

The one-year project will support coordination of the COVID-19 response through: strengthening national and district coordination of the COVID-19 response, strengthening COVID-19 detection, reporting, and response in the community schools, and closed settings. In addition, the project will also support the strengthening management of severe and critical COVID-19 cases.

The grant will be managed by WHO but implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health and District Health COVID-19 Response teams.

The agreement signing was witnessed by the Minister of State in Charge of General Duties, Hon, Hanifa Kawooya who appreciated the Government of Denmark and WHO for the support to Uganda in the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“The grant from the Danish Government is going to be a great contributor to our efforts towards managing the outbreak and vaccinating our citizens”, she said. Hon Hanifa also implored development partners to support Uganda to acquire vaccines to safeguard the lives of Ugandans. 

The Head of Cooperation at the Danish Embassy in Kampala, Mr. Henrik Jespersen acknowledged the good partnership WHO has, not only with the donor partners but most significantly with the Ministry of Health and district health offices. While signing the grant, he thanked WHO and the Ministry of Health who are the lead institutions in the COVID-19 response.

"We are optimistic that this additional financial support will contribute towards improved national and district coordination of COVID-19 responses and the lifesaving facilities will minimize avoidable COVID-19 infections and deaths”, said Henrik Jespersen.

While speaking at the signing ceremony, the WHO Representative in Uganda, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam expressed appreciation to the Government of Demark for the financial contribution towards COVID-19 management and prevention in Uganda. He noted, “the support from the Danish Government is a much needed, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.”

“Partners like the Danish Government have been instrumental in disease outbreak responses, and we, yet again, recognize their immense support in the COVID-19 response. Coordination is a core part of any outbreak response and WHO, working with the Ministry will use this support to boost the already existing structures”, he added.

The grant is in addition to roughly UGX 9.3 billion, which was granted in April 2020 for the Emergency Response to COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda. 

The resurgence plan was developed by the Ministry of Health in line with global guidance and the WHO’s April 2020 COVID-19 Strategy Update and intends to provide a framework for a robust response to an acute and gradual but sustained rise in the number of cases, mitigate the risk associated with COVID-19 resurgence and to strengthen sustainable structures for emergency response in the country.