A new COVID-19 positive case has been registered, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Uganda, to 61.
The case was one of the 1,019 samples tested at the Uganda Virus Research Centre in Entebbe on Tuesday.
According to Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general of health services at the Ministry of Health, the new case is a 32-year-old Kenyan truck driver who came from Kenya via Malaba Border point of entry.
“He did not have any signs and symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He was tested as part of the standard procedure for all cargo transporters entering Uganda. Arrangements to evacuate him to Entebbe Hospital are underway,” Dr Mwebesa’s statement reads in part.
He said that World Health Organisations international health regulations require that every case is counted and treated in a country where it was tested and confirmed.
Dr Mwebesa said that it is against this background, that Uganda is required to add the five positive foreign truck drivers to our statistics (i.e one Tanzanian and four Kenyans).
“This includes two cases who had earlier gone back to their respective home countries (Kenya and Tanzania).
Meanwhile, Dr Mwebesa refuted reports that two bodies of Ugandans who died in Dubai, UAE and Doha, Qatar, were intercepted at Entebbe International Airport.
He said that the cause of death of the two individuals from Dubai was an accident and the body that arrived on April 18, was buried safely.
The cause of death of individual [Daniel Ssebuliba] from Doha, Qatar, according to Dr Mwebesa, was reported as acute respiratory syndrome and the body was brought to Uganda on April 19 and was received by A-Plus Funeral Services and relatives of the deceased.
Dr Mwebesa said that when they were alerted, Ministry of Health and Uganda Red Cross teams took over the burial ceremony from A-Plus and accorded the deceased a safe and dignified burial in Kayunga District.
“However, six A-Plus staff and two relatives who received the body before the intervention of the Ministry of Health, were put under a 14-day institutional quarantine in Kayunga [Namagabi SS],” Dr Mwebesa said.
At Kisawo Cell in Kayunga town, where Ssebuliba’s body was buried, all relatives were barred from going near the body, according to Ms Susan Nakantu, one of the relatives.
She said that health officials directed relatives and residents not to go near the grave before three days elapse.
Dr George Epenyu, the commissioner in charge of community health in the Ministry of Health, said even although the death certificate indicated that Ssebuliba did not die from Covid -19, they could not take chances.
Source: www.monitor.co.ug
