Paul Bishop Drileba, the Arua District Health Officer, says they were forced to contravene the Covid19 Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs and reduce the mandatory quarantine period so as to cut on the high cost of keeping the suspects.
Arua District Covid19 Task Force has
reduced the mandatory quarantine period from two weeks to ten days citing lack
of food to feed to suspects in the quarantine center.
At least 107 people
are under institutional quarantine at Arua
prison primary school and Pioneer Hospital.
Another 18 people are in self-isolation. Two active
Covid19 cases are being managed at Arua Regional Referral hospital.
Paul Bishop
Drileba, the Arua District Health Officer, says they were forced to
contravene the Covid19 Standard Operating Procedures-SOPs and reduce the mandatory
quarantine period so as to cut on the high cost of keeping the suspects.
According to Drileba, Arua district has
reached tipping point because of acute shortage of food to feed the suspects in
the quarantine center.
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Bernard Enzama, the Leader of the Psycho Social support team,
says may of the suspects are going through a very stressful moment,
which makes them complain about acidic food causing heart burns.
He
says the ulcerous condition of many suspects in the quarantine centers has worsened their dilemma as they can’t feed them on posho
and beans.
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According to taskforce, there is need to
reach out to different stakeholders to contribute food and other resources to
support the Covid19 patients and suspects.
The two weeks quarantine
period is considered to be the outside the safety margin to ensure that one hasn’t
contracted the virus so as to transmit it to others.