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Kikuube, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Nine contacts of a Congolese refugee who succumbed to COVID-19 in Kyangwali refugee settlement area, Kikuube district have been quarantined.
The suspects include three health workers of Maratatu health center III who attended to the patient when he was admitted at the facility and six family members of the deceased.
The contacts were picked on Monday and are quarantined at Kasonga Youth Development Center in Kyangwali sub county.
Dr Nicholas Kwikiriza, the Kikuube district health officer says that the contacts were identified by the surveillance team which is on the ground assessing the COVID-19 situation in the settlement area.
He says that the blood samples have been picked from the nine and sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute Entebbe to ascertain their health status.
According to Kwikiriza, they are tracing for more suspects who could have come into close contact with the deceased. The health experts are also disinfecting Maratatu health center III.
The 27-year-old male Congolese refugee and resident of Maratatu village in Kyangwali refugee settlement area died from Hoima Regional Referral Hospital COVID-19 treatment unit on August 8, 2020.
The deceased presented with Covid-19 like symptoms including severe headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing and chest pain among others over the weekend. He was first admitted at Maratatu health center III in Kyangwali refugee settlement on August 6, 2020.
He was later transferred to Hoima Regional Referral Hospital Covid-19 treatment unit on August 7, 2020, when his condition deteriorated.
Richard Tabaro, the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner who doubles as the COVID-19 taskforce chairperson has asked the community in the settlement area to avail the surveillance team with relevant information that could lead to the whereabouts of other people who could have come into close contact with the deceased.
Reports indicate that the deceased escaped recently from the settlement area and crossed to DR Congo before he crossed back and joined his colleagues in the settlement.
This is the first Covid-19 case being reported in Kikuube district ever since the pandemic broke out in the country in March this year.
Kyangwali refugee settlement is home to more than 120,072 refugees, according to Uganda-Refugee statistics as of June 2020.
Congolese refugees form the majority of the population in the settlement which also hosts Rwandese, Burundians, South Sudanese, Somalis, and Kenyans.
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