Gad Rugajju, the Chairperson of Bugweri Covid19 Taskforce who also doubles as the acting Resident District Commissioner, says the samples of all staff were picked from Busesa health center IV before they were offered psycho-social support and directed to self-quarantine as they wait for their results.
Although the facility was disinfected on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, patients and their attendants started fleeing it for fear of contracting Covid19. As a result, management temporarily relocated some of the patients to the outpatient department. However, most of them opted to seek medical services from lower health facilities.
The UCAA Manager of Public Affairs, Vianney Luggya told URN that this was not a final schedule, but a draft sent to the operators, who were asked to give their input for a final plan.
According to the hospital director, Dr Alex Adeko, the health facility ran out of masks at the beginning of this week due to their high demand by the health workers who are handling overwhelming numbers of patients from the eight districts in the Tooro sub-region.
Some of facilities for sanitizing hands provided at different wards lack constant water supply and soap, which denies people from washing their hands routinely. Also health workers, patients and their attendants don’t adhere to the guidelines requiring them to wear face masks, which increases their chances of contracting and spreading Covid19.
Kadaga, who was speaking at the launch of the distribution of government face masks in Kamuli district on Saturday said that most communities have abandoned the presidential directives on social distancing and handwashing, putting them at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in case of an outbreak.
The patients were protesting the poor living conditions at the centre, late meals, poor sanitation and delayed results. The patients further challenged the absence of guards at the facility which does not have a perimeter wall to protect them from intruders and the lack of psychosocial support.
Sseggona said employers must also sign indemnity agreements that will protect them from liability from the sub-contractors. This means that if an employee of the sub-contractor who includes security services providers, food suppliers, and cleaners get infected with the virus.
On Friday, Muganga reportedly stormed Iganga Mainstreet with whistles and a placard condemning the government for failing to provide food for the needy. He also carried along a petition demanding that the government either lifts the lockdown and the continued ban on bodaboda operations.
The survey discovered that the lockdowns and border closures imposed to stop COVID-19 are impacting both the production of medicines and their distribution, potentially leading to increases in their cost and to supply issues, including stock-outs over the next two months.
According to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital Director, Dr Alex Adeku, the Ugandan male had traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and used a porous border to return to the country.
As a result, community members say, that a number of confined patients are taking advantage of the loophole to freely take walks to unidentified locations, especially in the evening. Many have been seen purchasing different items from shops and mixing up with unsuspecting community members.
Shafic Kisumuluzo, the Bwondha Zone C village chairperson, says despite registering one positive Covid19 case on the landing site last week, the both the community members and suspects have failed to adhere to the corona virus preventive guidelines of social distancing and wearing facial masks.
Beatrice Rwakamari, the Ntungamo woman MP says that the district is neighbouring Lake Kyoga but it lacks gazetted quarantine centres which make it hard for them to track down suspects.
The victim is a wife to a Uganda People’s Defense Forces-UPDF soldier, who travelled to the barracks to nurse her ailing husband on Tuesday. The soldier whose identities have been withheld is reported to have suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted in the barrack’s health facility.
Prof Pauline Byakika, a member of the Scientific Committee for COVID -19 says that the use of convalescent plasma will be a quicker and straight forward avenue to handle the disease given the continued rise in cases.
