Wakiso district staff to undergo Covid-19 testing

Wakiso, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health will screen Wakiso district staff for Covid-19. The district has registered more than 50 COVID-19 positive cases and two deaths.

About 200 staff will be tested at the district headquarters in Wakiso town council starting on Monday.

The District Health Officer Dr Mathias Lugoloobi says that the staff need to be tested since they have interacted with several people in the community since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to the plan, the screening exercise will also target health workers, teachers, sub-county chiefs and extension workers.

In Kabarole district, the district COVID-19 taskforce has also asked all district heads of departments, sub county chiefs and Fort Portal tourism city town clerk to mobilize their staff for testing.

According to a letter written by Festus Bandeeba, the Kabarole Deputy Resident District Commissioner, the exercise will also include willing community members, journalists, boda boda, taxi and bus operators and market vendors.

Bandeeba says this is due to the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country. He says that the exercise will start on August 31.

He says that although they have not received any suspected COVID-19 case among the categories of people supposed to be tested, they don’t want to take any chances because Fort Portal city hosts several travelers to and from border districts that include Kasese and Bundibugyo which neighbor Democratic Republic of Congo- DRC.

“This is done due to the uniqueness of Fort Portal being a central business town hosting travellers from border districts that put it at high risk,” reads part of Bandeeba’s letter that is dated August 27 and copied to the Kabarole Chief Administrative Officer and the Fort Portal city town clerk.

Currently, there are six COVID-19 cases at Fort Portal regional referral hospital that were picked from Kasese district.

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