Coronavirus: Uganda’s confirmed cases reach 63

Two Tanzanian truck drivers tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, pushing the national cumulative tally to sixty-three, Ministry of Health confirmed.

According the statement from Dr. Henry Mwebesa who is the Director General Health Services at the Ministry of Health, the two were from a total sample of 1,296 samples that were tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) on Wednesday.

“One case was from 550 samples taken from the community and quarantine centres and one from 746 samples tested from truck drivers at border points of entry,” Mwebesa said.

Dr. Mwebesa said that the case from the community was of a fourty three year Tanzanian male truck driver who arrived from Tanzania on April 17, 2020 and he was a contact to the Tanzanian driver who tested positive on the 17th as they had travelled together.

“Because of his close contact with the confirmed case, the ministry decided to quarantine him at Mulago hospital. A test conducted on him today (Wednesday) tested positive for COVID-19.”

The other case according to Dr. Mwebesa was of a thirty five year old Tanzanian truck driver who arrived at Mutukula border post from Dar-es-Saalam in Tanzania and by press time, arrangements to evacuate him to Entebbe Grade B hospital were underway.

The Ministry on Wednesday discharged a total of seven people having tested negative twice for COVID-19 at intervals of 24hrs. The discharge pushed the national tally to fourty five.

Dr. Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health said in a tweet that truck drivers would now be the country’s main challenge.

“Two more positives today. Truck drivers are going to be our main challenge as we continued to register more positives,” Dr. Atwine said.

In her speech on Saturday, Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said that the truck drivers cannot be delayed at the border to wait for their test results because they transport critical supplies that need to reach in time and delaying them may also cause commotion at the borders which is not safe.