Uganda Registers First COVID-19 Death

Uganda has registered its first COVID-19 death four months after the epidemic broke out in the country.

The victim is a 34-year-old woman who died at Joy Hospice Center in Mbale City on Wednesday. 

Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the Primary Health Care Minister, says the results from the samples taken from the deceased show that she was positive for COVID-19. 

"Right now we are trying to confirm whether she had any other health related conditions that might have led to her death. But for now, she tested positive for the disease," she said. 

On Wednesday, URN published a story indicating that the deceased had been rushed to Joy Hospice Center in Mbale from Namisindwa district with symptoms of the virus.

 

Although the deceased had been suspected to be Kenyan, but married to a Ugandan, the Ministry of Health says investigations have revealed that she was a Ugandan. 

Her death prompted the Mbale District COVID-19 taskforce to cordon off Joy Hospice Center and quarantine 16 health workers and more than 30 other people who are believed to have had contact with the deceased.

On Thursday morning, Isaac Wepondi, the Acting Medical Officer Mbale Municipal Council, who is also the COVID-19 Quarantine Center manager, told URN that they were tracing for all the people who had left the health center.

“We are now going to look for those people who were at Joy Hospice Center at the time the deceased was there but left such that they are also quarantined,” he said.    

Wepondi said all the patients who were in the health center will not be allowed to leave until they complete the fourteen days mandatory quarantine period.

According to the World Health Organisation-WHO, over 15,000 people have succumbed to Covid19 on the African continent. Uganda was one of three African countries that were yet to record any death. 

Eritrea and Seychelles now remain standing.