Uganda’s Covid-19 deaths cross the 1,000 mark

The number of Covid-19 deaths in Uganda has crossed the 1000 mark after the country confirmed 34 new deaths bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,023. This is what the data released today shows.

Data from the Ministry of Health, further shows the country confirmed 543 new Covid-19 cases with the cumulative confirmed cases now standing at 79,977 as at 28th June 2021.

This comes at a time as Uganda struggles to contain the second wave of the deadly Coronavirus which has seen a spike in reported cases of Covid-19 in the past few weeks.

The current escalation in number of Ugandans succumbing to the virus has largely been attributed to a relaxing of COVID prevention guidelines.

Delivering his national address on 18th June, President Yoweri Museveni admitted that the country was facing a challenge of shortage of life saving oxygen which he attributed to lack of containers to carry the gas.

He noted that the national daily oxygen consumption stood at 3,000 cylinders per day, where each cylinder is 6,800 litres, adding that the government would do the best it can to address the challenge.

He warned that the oxygen crisis would go on for the next weeks unless Ugandans adhered to the Standard Operating Procedures put in place by the Ministry of Health.

“With the estimated Covid-19 patient increase in the coming weeks, the daily oxygen consumption will rise to 25,800 cylinders per day in one month, unless we change the course. This is nearly a 9 -fold increase in the overall national oxygen requirement.” Museveni warned during his address.

The president announced a 42- day lockdown in which he announced new measures to curb the spread of the virus, including ban on large social gatherings, public transport and non food markets.