(Bloomberg) --

Uganda will fully reopen its economy in January after almost two years of control measures to contain the spread of Covid-19, as at least half of the targeted population would have been inoculated, President Yoweri Museveni said.

The East African country expects to have vaccinated 12 million of the targeted 21 million people by end-December, Museveni said in a televised address Thursday night from the capital, Kampala.

“Vaccination is the key to opening the economy, now that the vaccines are available the economy will be opened in January,” he said. Uganda has received more than 9.5 million doses of mainly AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and expects more by year-end, he said.

Schools, bars and entertainment centers have been closed since the virus was first detected in the country in March 2020 and a dusk-to-dawn curfew been enforced to contain the virus.  Bloomberg