Uganda intensifies COVID-19 prevention measures are more cases emerge in the neighbouring Countries
Following a suspected case of COVID-19 from a tour guide in Kanungu District, Uganda Minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said the health experts are carrying out tests from samples taken from the patient to discover the truth.
However, she maintains that it is just a suspected case of Coronavirus because there isn’t yet any symptom of the deadly COVID-19 in Uganda manifesting in the suspect.
“We got an alert from Kanungu District of a tour guide who is not well, is currently under quarantine and we have taken samples. The samples we take are not blood samples, we take nasal samples, so we get a swap from the nose because the suspects usually have a running nose and they are coughing. So we take a swap from the nose, and that’s what we use to carry out the TCR test,” Aceng said
“We received the sample of this suspect from Kanungu and it’s currently undergoing testing, it takes about four hours for us to have the result out. So, in about two hours we may be having the result out and we shall inform you accordingly,” Aceng added.
Various isolation centres countrywide according to Aceng have been created to deal with any possible outbreak in Uganda.
“We concluded the training for Entebbe isolation facility, over 20 health workers were trained and they are ready and the isolation facilities have been set up, 25 beds in readiness. We have been using it for some suspected cases,” Aceng revealed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Yonas Woldemariam commenting on the matter said that Uganda is in a better condition to handle an outbreak due to the experience it gained in the fight against Ebola.
“We are better prepared than we were a year and a half ago. All the investment put in terms of effective prevention and control which helps here all the materials which have been put, all the things we have been investing as a government as partners are what is making us be in a better position to respond,” Woldemariam said.
Aceng also said that she carried out an inspection of Entebbe International Airport screening facilities to re-affirm the country’s readiness to curb the deadly virus.
“Our coming here was also to re-affirm that there’s screening going on at the VIP Section which many of the people may not be aware of and so that they can visualize by themselves and understand that they are being screened,” Aceng said.
Also, Aceng revealed that she had carried out similar inspections at religious gatherings and she will continue to inspect the Airport every week.
“I took the opportunity to visit various churches at random and am happy to report they are adhering to the rules.”
Rigorous screening and hand sanitizing are now carried out on every individual coming through Entebbe Airport regardless of flight class or social status as one of the infection prevention measures in the country.
“And one of the things we came to do was to understand the system, rethink the system and re-plan the system. And we have had the opportunity to walk through and listen to the ideas from these system persons and we do hope that within this one week we will be able to redesign the screening area for the rest of the people,” Aceng said.
“So that we decongest down there where there are screened and we have more space where they can come in and maintain the social isolation distance of 1 meter while protecting each other but also have adequate space of isolation of suspected cases. But if the new design is complete and we do hope that within the next one week it will be done, all the VIPs and everybody will use that section, and only the VVIPs will access the higher level for screening and we even intend to reduce the traffic in the VIP further to the only limited number of people,” Aceng added.
