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Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu University Faculty of Medicine is considering subjecting it’s final year students to COVID-19 ahead of the opening of final year semester in June.
At least 1,500 finalists from Uganda and beyond are expected to report for their final year semester after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered for partial easing of national lockdown against the deadly global contagion.
The huge student population has raised concern from the public and district task force who are debating possible ways of testing them because they will be coming from hot spot areas prone to the infectious virus disease hence posing danger to the local population.
Dr Felix Kaducu, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine reveals that the University intends to conduct a scientific survey which will be filled by the students online in order to know their health status. The details will presented to health personnel upon arrival.
According to Dr Kaducu, only students presenting high temperatures would have their samples taken for lab analysis which will eventually reduce the cost of testing on the Ministry of Health.
Bishop Loum Janani, the In-Charge of Integrated Case Management at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital asserts that the coming of finalists from across the country and beyond poses an unprecedented burden on healthcare delivery.
The Ministry of Education and Sports is yet to issue comprehensive guidelines on reopening schools to candidate classes as the country prepares to begin a phased lifting of the national lockdown against COVID-19.
Currently, there are up to 65 confirmed cases of COVID-19 patients at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and three of the cases have been confirmed from the community at the institutional quarantine centres.
However, overall, the total number of confirmed cases in the country has spiraled to 282 with 191 active cases and 70 recoveries from 84,576 samples tested since March, according to the Ministry of Health statistics.
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The plan of subjecting final year students of Gulu University to COVID-19 tests should be way to go. This should be part of Ministry of Education guideline and applied to all reporting candidates, finalists etc countrywide. Rapid tests should considered at whatever cost, this will curtail the possible spread of the deadly disease and ultimately allay fears amongst students and parents.