Soroti hospital receives first COVID-19 patients

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Soroti Regional Referral Hospital has received its first COVID-19 confirmed cases for treatment and management. The patients were brought aboard Teso Affairs Ambulance around 3:30 pm on Monday.

The patients include three women and one girl. They were among the first 10 contacts of a businessman from Bukedea who tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was taken to Mbale Regional Referral Hospital for treatment. The group was quarantined in Kumi district but their results turned positive.

Dr Stephen Pande, the Consultant Public Health and Coordinator of COVID-19 in Teso says the patients were evacuated from Kumi district after receiving results from the Ministry of Health this morning. He says that the team is still looking for contacts of the first case in Teso sub region.

The evacuation of COVID-19 patients from Kumi has left many people and patients at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital in panic. At the gate, some of the people who used to man the gate disappeared for hours before they could be traced. Other patients managed to move out of their beds to observe how the patients were managed from a distance.

Martin Opolot, a patient from the medical ward told our reporter that much as he is scared, there is need for the community to stand up and join the fight against COVID-19 by observing the guidelines in place. The guidelines include maintaining a social distance of up to 2 metres, washing hands frequently with soap and water and sanitising, among others.

He observed that some people have relaxed and gone back to business.

At least 50 contacts were put under quarantine in the districts of Soroti, Kumi, Bukedea and Pallisa. The Ministry of Health confirmed another 14 cases of COVID-19 this morning, totalling to 212 cases in the country. The new cases were part of 1,739 samples that were tested yesterday.

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