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Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At least one ton of maize flour donated to feed Covid-19 suspects in Kitgum district is nearing expiry due to absence of consumers in all designated quarantine centers.
For a month now, Kitgum district hasn’t admitted any Covid-19 suspect in the quarantine at Kitgum General Hospital, St Joseph Hospital and Pandwong Health Center III.
Dr Geoffrey Okello, the Acting Medical Superintendent Kitgum General Hospital says the maize flour has stayed for long in their stores with no one to consume it.
Also in the hospital store lying redundant are 500Kgs of rice and 500kgs of beans.
Dr Okello says they are now considering giving out the food items on credit or sell it off in the market before it rots away.
“The flour is almost getting spoilt, so we are thinking that it should be given or sold away to prominent people in the district so that it doesn’t get spoilt. When we need it, we shall get the food back because at the moment, the quarantine centers are empty,” Dr Okello says.
He says they anticipate to use proceeds from the food to replenish their stock in case they receive suspects in quarantine centers.
Amuli Kasugga Kintu, the Kitgum Deputy Resident District Commissioner says the task-force’s central executive committee will sit to see ways of offloading the food nearing expiry from their stores.
He however discouraged the task force members against handing out the food items to civil servants as it attracts suspicion from the community and stakeholders.
Kintu instead suggested that the flour can be handed out to traders within the municipality who will sell it and pay back the task-force with fresh maize flours, beans and rice.
The matter has come at a time the task-force members are still divided over the premature closure of one of the covid-19 quarantine centers in Pandwong Health Center III in Pandwong division.
On Friday, Simon Knox Okongo, the Kitgum District Surveillance Focal Point person revealed during the weekly Covid-19 task force meeting that normal health services have resumed at Pandwong Health Center III.
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