KAMPALA — Fourteen new cases of Coronavirus Disease have been recorded in the country, bringing Uganda’s count to 212 nationals.
The Ministry of Health says all these are contacts to previously confirmed truck drivers who according to but “were under quarantine at the time of test.”
The government also blocked the entry of 5 Tanzanian truck drivers who tested positive at Mutukula point of entry.
“5 Tanzanian foreign truck drivers (all Tanzanians) were handed over to their country of origin,” Dr Ruth Aceng the Health Minister said, adding that samples from Points of Entry tested on Sunday were 655 while samples from community and contacts are 1,084
Dr. Aceng, the Minister of Health says it is risky for Uganda to treat foreigners because this was likely to strain health centres and also increase the risk of spreading the disease to Ugandans.
Scientists on Friday advised that it is too early to rule out community transmission of coronavirus disease in Uganda.
According to the World Health Organisation, community transmissions are cases of a disease that crop up within a community without a clear source or origin of an infection in the community.
The health ministry has tested over 18,400 people within different communities as part of the Rapid Community Assessment that was targeting 23,000 Ugandans.
So far, there are only four cases that have been detected during the survey bringing the number of cases from the communities to 12.
The first case from the survey was a police detective in Masindi believed to have come into contact with an infected person during his work.
The other was a female police officer working in Kyotera district near the Uganda-Tanzania border and a 22-year-old student in Rakai.
A 40-year-old man suspected to be a truck driver also tested positive, although efforts to trace his whereabouts are still ongoing.
This is in addition to the seven community cases were confirmed in March.
But the ministry still doesn’t know how five of seven cases ended up with the disease. Neither had they travelled to high-risk areas nor had contact with a confirmed case. Dr Aceng says that these were detected were sporadic cases who likely picked up the disease from people.
