The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health (MOH) is set call all people that returned from the Middle East and India in September for retesting, owing to the high number of positive cases recorded.
This was revealed by Dr. Richard Mugahi, the Ministry of Health official in charge of quarantine centers who told Uganda Radio Network – URN that at Douglas Villa Hotel alone, one of the quarantine centers located in Makerere-Kikoni, they have in a few days identified 73 positive cases.
Because of this, he said they chose to retain about 60 returnees that are currently in the hostel for more days as they monitor them noting that the majority of them arrived from Oman.
“We are passing a resolution tomorrow (Tuesday) of the countries on the list of high infections,” he said that list will determine the number of people targeted.
But up to 4000 people have been repatriated from different countries since the government embarked on returning those that had been stranded in other countries from July. Majority of them had been in Dubai, Oman and Jordan and Mugahi says these are listed as high risk countries.
However, while this move is being planned, those that returned were required to present a negative COVID-19 test certificate at arrival and tested again during quarantine but over time, there have been complaints by returnees to officials flouting the same guidelines they formulated.
For instance on Sunday, residents at Douglas Villa Hotel released a video complaining about their fear of contracting the disease in quarantine since they were sharing rooms and the filth around the facility.
Others had complained of being released before elapse of their recommended 14 day stay.
As of Monday, a cumulative total of 8,965 people had tested positive for COVID-19 with an additional 157 new people testing positive. While of the over 8,000 have tested postive, 5078 have recovered and 82 succumbed to the viral respiratory disease.
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