4 more people discharged as Uganda’s virus recoveries rise

Four male patients who have fully recovered from coronavirus were discharged from Mulago hospital yesterday.
This brings the total number of who have beaten the deadly virus to 12, with seven earlier discharged from Entebbe hospital and one from Adjumani hospital.
Earlier this week the Ministry of Health declared 18 coronavirus patients free and would be discharged on Easter Monday but this did not happen.
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the spokesperson at the Ministry of Health, said discharging patients depends on the readiness of the communities.

Dr Byarugaba Baterana, the executive director Mulago hospital, has urged government to learn from this outbreak to equip the hospitals to be able to handle bigger number of patients, adding that this is the time to bridge gaps.
“The time is now to prepare so that we should be able to have bigger numbers, we should manage. [At] Mulago we need like an extra 700 ventilators, 700 monitors, we need another oxygen plant. Other regional referrals that don’t have intensive care units [and] the time is now,” Dr Baterana said yesterday.

Dr Baterana added: “We are ready to treat patients but if the patients are too many they will overwhelm us, the number of monitors we have in hospital are not enough if we had 1000 patients…, even if it’s (coronavirus) gone, if it comes back another five years it finds us extremely prepared… this is a lesson, a good lesson to learn…,”

Dr Rosemary Byanyima, the deputy executive director of Mulago hospital, yesterday said there was an arrangement to open a clinic for the discharged patients.
“You never know, some studies have shown people have turned positive again. As we discharge them we caution them to continue to observe all other preventive measures to avoid reinfection but we are very optimistic and we hope for the best,” Dr Byanyima said.

Dr Byanyima added that they are looking forward to discharging other six patients if their results turn out negative.
As of yesterday, Uganda coronavirus cases stood at 55 with 47 active cases and 12 recovered.
Globally at least 2,017,939 coronavirus cases have been registered with 128,056 deaths and 492,148 recovered.

Vaccines approval
Greenlight. China has approved clinical trials for two more experimental vaccines to combat the novel coronavirus, officials said on Tuesday. The vaccines use inactivated coronavirus pathogens, and the approvals pave the way for early-stage human trials, Wu Yuanbin, an official from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology told a regular press briefing.

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