KAMPALA – The Ministry of Health has said confirmed that Eleven Ugandans who recently returned from Afghanistan have tested positive for COVID-19. The Ministry of Health said all the 11 returnees who tested positive for the virus were under quarantine at the time of testing. To date, Uganda’s confirmed cases are 870 whole recoveries have also increased to 808.
The 11 cases are part of a group of 137 Ugandans who returned from the Middle East country on the weekend.
Majority of the returnees were security guards. Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the health ministry spokesperson said that the eleven cases are among travellers who failed to secure the negative test travel certificate before boarding the plane.
“Most of them have failed to produce negative tests certificates so we have resorted to testing them. So all Ugandans will be tested now as they enter the country,” Ainebyoona said.
Previously, one of the conditions that all Ugandans had to fulfil before they can travel back was a negative travel certificate in addition to undergoing institutional quarantine on their arrival in the country.
At this time, it remains unclear whether the government has changed its stand on the need for negative travel certificates as a must-have but with over 2000 Ugandans expected to return in the next couple of weeks.
The Ministry of Health announced that it had gazetted 37 centres, where Ugandans returning from abroad will be quarantined. The centres have a total room capacity of 2,597. Of these, 250 are in three public facilities which are Mulago Paramedical School, Lands and Survey and the Fisheries Institute.
Since Monday last week, stranded Ugandans arrived from Afghanistan, Turkey, Belgium, The Netherlands and Sudan.
