Catherine Kamwiine, the Lyantonde Resident District Commissioner, says that the task force is stranded due to a lack of funds. She adds that they may lose the fight against the pandemic without funds to run different operations mainly testing and follow-up on patients in hard-to-reach communities.
The delayed release of
funds to combat the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Lyantonde district is
crippling efforts to follow up on patients under home-based care and
implementation of the awareness campaigns. According to Lyantonde COVID-19 Task
Force, the government allocated the district over Shillings 320M but they are
yet to receive the funds to date.
As a result, Health
workers, Village Heath Teams, surveillance and management teams at district,
sub-county, parish, and Local Council (LCIs) levels cannot monitor patients
scattered in the communities or even respond to emergencies in time. Dr. Moses Nkanika, the
Lyantonde District Health Officer, says that some patients under home-based
care defy the isolation guidelines and leave their homes to interact with
unsuspecting community members.
He says this has fueled community transmissions
in the last two-and-a-half months of the second wave. He explains that they
registered 140 positive cases in the first wave while in the second wave they
screened 1,295 people and found 312 positive.
//Cue in: “Why I put
the second wave…………………
Cue
out:…………………………second wave were 20.”//
He adds that they have
cumulatively screened more than 2000 people since the first wave. Sixteen were
referred to Mbarara and Masaka Regional Referral Treatment Centers while 404
were placed under home-based care and the rest were admitted at Lyantonde
hospital due to unavoidable circumstances.
He highlights
other challenges that have made their work difficult in combating the pandemic.
//Cue in: “And because of the increased…………………
Cue
out:……………………………activities in the district.”//
Catherine Kamwiine,
the Lyantonde Resident District Commissioner, says that the task force is stranded
due to lack of funds. She adds that they may lose the fight against the
pandemic without funds to run different operations mainly testing and follow-up
on patients in hard-to-reach communities.
//Cue in: “The second
challenge…………………
Cue out:………………issues
come in,”//
Kamwiine says that
managing patients under home-based care is not simple especially without funds
to monitor them. She explains that some
often interact with unsuspecting community members, which has increased the
transmission of the deadly disease.
//Cue in: “We have
had……………………..
Cue out:………………spread
to continue.”//
On Thursday last week,
a Parliamentary COVID-19 Taskforce from Central Uganda visited Lyantonde to
assess the government responses. Dr. Michael Bukenya, the Bunya County MP, who
led the delegation, said Lyantonde has a functional District task force but they
lack resources to finance their operations.
He explains that they
are just improvising and stretching so hard to contain the spread of the
disease.
//Cue in: “Sente zitera okuva……………………..
Cue out:………………zijja
emirimu jiwedde.”//
Fred Muhangi, the
Lyantonde District Chairperson, has appealed to the government to re-emphasize
vaccination and regular awareness campaigns as some of the key remedies to
ending the pandemic.
Davis Buyondo
Freelancer