The Quarantine Centre has 26 suspects, which include six Ugandans and 20 foreign nationals mainly from South Sudan. 23 of the secluded persons have been categorized as high-risk travellers who have moved from Uganda to South Sudan during the time of the COVID-19 contagion.
The Arua district COVID-19 task force is struggling to
manage children whose mothers have been secluded at Arua Prison Primary School Institutional Quarantine Centre.
The Quarantine Centre has 26 suspects, which include six Ugandans and 20
foreign nationals mainly from South Sudan. 23 of the
secluded persons have been categorized as high-risk travellers who have moved from Uganda to South
Sudan during the time of the COVID-19 contagion.
But at the same time, the Centre is hosting four
children of South Sudan nationals, among those in quarantine. But Norman
Cwinyai, the COVID-19 Surveillance and
Laboratory focal person says that they do not have a children-friendly
environment to keep the children
of quarantined mothers.
According to Cwinyai, they have
been left with no option but to
keep the children together with their mothers, a move which he acknowledges could be risky for the health and wellbeing
of the children.
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care of these children.”//
However, Arua district health
Inspector Manase Anziku, says that
the Centre was established without a focus on how to handle children. He appeals to the partners in Arua and
the new Terego district to come to
the aid of the children by creating children-friendly environments to keep them away from mixing
with people under
quarantine.
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other members there."//
Arua Resident district commissioner Nahori Oya has urged the health personnel and
partners not to relax on critical challenges
like that of the children but mobilize for local support to handle them.
Arua COVID-19 task force continues to receive
alerts especially from the refugee camps on suspected COVID-19 cases many of whom are women with children. The surveillance team last week
received 14 COVID-19 alerts from Imvepi and Omugo refugee
camps now in the new Terego district, which
still has no COVID-19
taskforce in place.