Healthcare workers involved in COVID-19 work set for routine testing

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |   Healthcare workers involved in the surveillance and treatment of people with Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 will be tested, every seven to fourteen days, according to Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng. 

This comes amid concerns that while health workers around the world put their lives on the line to save others in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the hospitals, have become a hotspot for disease transmission, and as a result, many have tested positive and others lost their lives across the world.  At the same time, the facilities have been hit with a shortage of protective equipment, putting themselves at high risk from COVID-19.  

Records indicate that the novel coronavirus has killed over 100 doctors and nurses around the world, 66 of them in Italy, where infection rates among healthcare workers were reported to be nine per cent. They have battled physical and mental exhaustion, the torment of difficult triage decisions and the pain of losing patients and colleagues, all in addition to the infection risk.  

Dr Aceng says that already an inventory of all the health workers involved has been made and testing started with initially those working in Entebbe Hospital and Mulago National Specialized Referral Hospital. Soon, she said, they will embark on testing surveillance officers.       

Different sections of the public have come up to express concerns of safety of health workers working amidst this crisis with the Uganda Medical Association recently urging their members not to turn up for work if their safety is not guaranteed.  

But, the Minister clarified that strict precautions are followed with what they are learning from other countries that have battled the disease indicating that a lot of health workers contracted the disease in the process of caring for positive cases.

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