Fraudsters inject Ugandans with water instead of COVID-19 vaccines

It has emerged that at least 800 people in Uganda received fake COVID-19 vaccines in June from fraudsters as employers rushed to vaccinate workers amid a spike in infections.

Bloomberg reports that some companies paid fees to have their employees vaccinated from their work premises, but the medical officials turned out to be fraudsters and injected them with water.

The Director of State House Health Monitoring Unit, Warren Naamara said two people were arrested over the scam.

The East African country is battling a second wave exacerbated by the Delta variant. Cases have spiked to a cumulative 91,162 from 47,147 at the end of May, according to the Health Ministry.

The nation with about 42.7 million people has received only 1.14 million AstraZeneca Plc doses through the Covax facility and a donation from the Indian government.

It has administered just over 1.1 million. The country is due to receive 285,600 doses under Covax this month and 687,800 in August as well as a donation of 300,000 doses from Sinovac in July.