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Adjumani, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The mobile laboratory which was installed at Adjumani general hospital to test and diagnose Covid-19 has run out reagents.
The laboratory which serves all the districts of West Nile region and parts of Northern Uganda was a donation by the Germany government through the East African Community (EAC).
It can test 94 samples in two hours and 800 samples in a day and can release the results in six hours.
Godfery Manga Illemaiya, the acting Adjumani district health officer said that the reagents got finished on Sunday. He says that Covid-19 samples collected in the district are now being taken to the Uganda Virus Research Institute- UVRI in Entebbe or the Central Public Health Laboratories in Kampala.
Manga says that the laboratory had helped save time and fuel which would have been used for delivering results to UVRI.
Adjumani district with the help of health implementing partners like Medical Teams International (MTI) has arranged to transport Covid-19 samples to Kampala at least three times in a week.
Adjumani Resident District Commissioner Taban Peter Data said efforts are underway by the Ministry of Health to restore the reagents which will boost diagnosis.
Adjumani district has so far recorded 70 COVID-19 positive cases and 56 recoveries.
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health said plans are underway to send more reagents to the facility.
In May, newly launched laboratories to test for coronavirus (COVID-19) in different parts of the country including at border points and in Kampala could not conduct many tests because of lack of reagents.
The labs include Makerere University’s department of microbiology and immunology, the Infectious Disease Research Collaboration in Tororo district, the Uganda Virus Research Institute Plague Laboratory in Arua district, Gulu University, Rakai Health Sciences Laboratory and the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital laboratory.
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