KAMPALA —Preliminary results of the rapid assessment launched by government to examine the extent of community transmission of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Uganda have ruled out possibility of community transmission.
Addressing the country on Thursday, health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said said of the over 14,000 people tested from the community so far, only four cases have tested positive.
“There is no evidence of community transmission at this point. However, communities in border districts are at high risk,” the minister said.
This survey which targets a representative population of truckers and communities along their routes, health workers, market vendors, fishing communities, Taxi drivers, LDUs and religious leaders seeks to test 20,000 people picked randomly from those key areas.
“Potential areas of worry include; porous borders, communities along the routes of the truck drivers, contacts of previous positive cases, traffic police, UPDF and LDUs,” she added.
The positive community cases with no link to previous positive cases include a police officer picked from Masindi, another from Kyotera in addition to a trucker also tested positive from Kyotera. The forth is a student in Rakai district who returned from Bukoba in Tanzania.
The findings of this survey will inform whether Uganda will lift the lockdown any time soon.
Overall, 139 people have tested positive of which 79 are truckers.
