Uganda’s COVID-19 cases rise to 81

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Two contacts of an earlier confirmed case of a Burundian refugee tested positive to coronavirus disease on Monday bringing Uganda’s total cases to 81. 

According to the Ministry of Health, the 24-year-old male Ugandan and 21-year-old Burundian National are under isolation at Rakai Hospital. They had been earlier picked from the community for quarantining having been traced and found to have been in contact with a positive case.

They were among the 299 samples picked from the community and quarantine centres for testing by the Uganda Virus Research Institute. Others tested on Monday include 1,703 truck drivers who all tested negative.

However, the new positive cases come in more than two weeks after Uganda had a case that got infected from within the community. This short-lived success has had experts start recommending that the total lockdown that had been embarked on to halt further transmission of the disease starts being lifted, a position that is now likely to change.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng told journalists that even as there hasn’t been a community case registered lately, the extent of community transmission was unknown as not all contacts to earlier positive cases had been picked.

A community assessment survey launched on Tuesday will inform whether Uganda still has more positive cases in the community or those that had the virus but recovered before being detected.

*******

URN