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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the gaps and the need to strengthen the emergency care system in Uganda. The Ugandan Ministry of Health implemented an emergency care capacity-building program during the COVID-19 pandemic response to improve COVID-19 case management in Uganda. We describe the curriculum development and rollout using a cascade model. Methods: In June 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Hospital Emergency Unit Assessment Tool (HEAT) was used to assess emergency units and document existing capacity gaps in regional referral hospitals and general hospitals. The WHO Basic Emergency Care curriculum was modified to a training curriculum for emergency care principles for COVID-19 management. Training of trainers was conducted across 14 health regions in July and August 2021. The trainers trained cascaded the training through facility-based training during continuous professional development sessions. Results: Using the HEAT, 115 health facilities (14 regional and 101 general hospitals) were assessed. Only 31.3% (36/115) of the health facilities had a formal triage system. 53.5% (54/101) of general hospitals lacked non-rotating staff in the emergency unit. Some 511 healthcare workers from 205 facilities were trained as trainers, of whom 51.8% were nurses. The trainers trained cascaded the training to 3,550 healthcare workers. There was a significant difference between the overall median pre-test (71%) and median post-test (86.8%) scores of trainers trained (p

COVID-19 vaccination was launched in March 2021 in Uganda and initially prioritized persons >50 years of age, persons with underlying conditions, healthcare workers, teachers, and security forces. However, uptake remained low 5 months after the program launch. Makerere University’s Infectious Diseases Institute supported Uganda’s Ministry of Health in optimizing COVID-19 vaccination uptake models by using point-of-care, place of worship, and place of work engagement and the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment model in 47 of 135 districts in Uganda, where we trained influencers to support mobilization for vaccination outreach under each model. During July–December, vaccination rates increased significantly in targeted regions, from 92% to 130% for healthcare workers, 40% to 90% for teachers, 25% to 33% for security personnel, 6% to 15% for persons >50 years of age, and 6% to 11% for persons with underlying conditions. Our approach could be adopted in other targeted vaccination campaigns for future pandemics.