MOROTO – Drivers trained and assigned by the ministry of health to collect and transport blood samples taken from suspected Covid-19 patients have shunned going to Moroto Regional Referral Hospital due to increased insecurity in Karamoja region.
According to Dr. Ben Watmoni, the Moroto Regional Referral Hospital director, the hospital has 50 blood samples which was taken from people suspected of having covid-19 but the drivers have refused to collect the it because of the recent killing of one of the doctors in a road ambushed by the Karamojong warriors last week.
Suspected Karamojong warriors on May 8 shot dead Dr. Benson Otim who was attached to Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.
He was shot dead in an ambush as he was riding to Otuke to check on his family. Since the incident took place, security have not yet made any arrest.
Dr. Watmoni told the district taskforce of Covid-19 on Tuesday that the hospital has continued keeping the suspects for long without knowing their results because the samples are still in Moroto hospital.
“I have tried several attempts to convince drivers to reach to the hospital and collect the blood but they have refused, instead they stop from Soroti and they go back which is a big challenge to us at the hospital,” he said.
Although the Resident District Commissioner who also chairs the district taskforce on Covid-19 Mr. Peter Ken Lochap told the meeting that the region was peaceful and the killing of the doctor seems to have been planned.
Dr. Watomi appealed to RDC to make it in written to the ministry of health to compel the drivers to collect the blood sample.
According to Dr. Watmoni, the killing of one of his staff by the names Benson Otim in an ambush has portrayed bad image in the region with many people fearing to go there.
