Coronavirus: Government to test all people under institutional quarantine

All people that are currently under institutional quarantine will now be tested for Coronavirus as government continues to reduce the number of people that may be spreading the virus undetected, Ministry of Health has announced.

The Minister of Health Dr Ruth Aceng in a press conference held on Thursday at the Nile Avenue made the announcement.

Aceng said that government must rapidly find and test suspected cases and this will be done in a number of ways that will, among others, include testing of all that are currently under institutional quarantine.

“Ministry of Health has obtained the passenger manifests of the travelers dating back to the March 7 2020. These manifests will be correlated with the health forms filled by the travelers and will be used to track all those who returned in the period of 7th March to 22nd March, when the airport closed,” Aceng said.

“Government will also test all those under quarantine, to weed out asymptomatic cases and institute more strict quarantine measures.”

According to the Ministry of health, Uganda currently has a total of 2661 travelers who have been identified for either self-quarantine or institutional quarantine since January 2020.

At least 1015 high risk travelers are under institutional quarantine and this number includes those from United Arab Emirates (UAE) who responded to the MOH call to report to Mulago for assessment.

A total of 660 contacts to the 33 earlier confirmed cases have also been listed and currently being followed up on.

Aceng also announced that all the contacts of any new confirmed cases will be traced, found, tested and duly institutionally quarantined for further follow up and testing.

Uganda at the moment has 44 confirmed cases with the majority being being travelers returning from UAE (14), UK (14), and other countries like Germany (1), USA (1), Afghanistan (1) and China (2).

Districts like Masaka (3), Hoima (2), Adjumani (1) and Iganga have also reported cases and Minister Aceng said that ‘it is not clear if these were secondary to ongoing active transmissions.’

All the confirmed cases, according to Aceng were admitted in Entebbe Grade B hospital, Mulago National Referral Hospital, Adjumani and Hoima Hospitals and they are improving on treatment. All cases presented mild symptoms.