Uganda’s Ministry of Health begins testing of all contacts of COVID-19 patients
Laboratory tests for all contacts of COVID-19 patients were launched by the Uganda Ministry of Health although they still face the challenge of a shortage of test kits.
Ministry of Health says this is being done to ensure that all the people with the coronavirus are tested and identified to curb the spread of COVID-19.
On the Ministry of Health COVID-19 dashboard over 800 contacts of confirmed cases are to be tested some under institutional quarantine as well as self-isolation.
This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine.
“We are testing! All these numbers you are seeing they are not only from the quarantine, but others are also contacts of the confirmed cases,” Atwine said.
This comes amidst fears whether the country can handle the testing burden as the country struggle for supplies from already overstretched suppliers.
IGAD joins fight against COVID-19, donates UGX 376 million to Uganda
However, the staff of Inter-Government Authorities on Development (IGAD) donated 376 Million Shillings to the Ministry of Health to help in the workload.
The money was handed over to the IGAD Migration Governance and Regional Integration Expert, Lucy Daxbacher on behalf of the IGAD Executive Secretary who then handed it to the State Minister in charge of Primary Health Care, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu.
“The problem of COVID-19 is evident in all our eight-member state. We have over 340 cases with approximately less than 10 fatalities,” Kaducu said.
The IGAD staff has also made similar contributions in the IGAD Member States like Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan Djibouti, and Somalia to help fight COVID-19 disease.
“As Ministry, as a country, and we are ready to receive this offer and we are very ready to manage it transparently and the end of it all, we will account up to the last penny,” Kaducu said.
Dr Atwine further said all the 52 cases in Uganda are still undergoing treatment. However, the index case is still shading a lot of virus in his body which is delaying recovering.
“We haven’t had patients who have recovered but they are stable, except that we cannot discharge them until when we test their blood and when we take the sample when they are no longer having the virus then we shall let them go home,” Atwine said.
“If we let them go home now even if they don’t have symptoms, they will continue spreading the disease because they still have the virus in their system,” Atwine added.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that 377 of the 2661 high-risk travellers have completed their 14 days follow up and discharged from institutional quarantine.
And a total of 6002 remain under institutional quarantine while 834 contacts of the confirmed cases are under follow-up.
Coronavirus updates
- 1,347,689 cases reported globally
- 74,783 COVID-19 related deaths
- 286,463, recoveries
The USA leads the world with 367,650 cases, 10,943 deaths and 19,810 recoveries. However, death tolls lower than in Italy and Spain.
Spain
136,675 cases, 13,341 deaths, and 40,437 recoveries
Italy
132,547 cases, 16,523 deaths, and 22,837 recoveries
China where COVID-19 emerged today recorded more than 32 cases compared to yesterday where it recorded 39 new cases.
The USA recorded over 30,000 new cases and today they have so far recorded over 646 new cases of COVID-19.
