54 Kalangala residents leave quarantine centre
Some of the people who left the Kalangala COVID-19 quarantine centre on Tuesday. PHOTO BY SYLVESTER SSEMUGENYI
KALANGALA- After spending 23 days in institutional quarantine at Bishop Dunstan Memorial Secondary in Kalangala District, 54 people have been discharged after testing negative for COVID-19 three times.
They were discharged a day after staging a strike over poor feeding and miserable accommodation at the quarantine centre which is managed by the district COVID-19 taskforce.
Those discharged were picked up from Senero- Beta, Lukindi, Kasekulo, Banga and Bumangi in Kalangala Town Council.
These are areas where a civil engineer who tested positive for COVID-19, reportedly visited after turning from the US on March 12.
Dr Hilary Bitakaramire, the district health officer, said on Tuesday that they tested samples from the members of the group three times as per Ministry of Health guidelines and they all tested negative for COVID-19.
“That’s why they are discharged. We apologise for the delay since we were still processing their discharge certificates,” he said.
Uganda coronavirus cases stand at 56 with 17 active cases and 38 recovered.
The latest case that was confirmed on Monday, is a 46-year-old Burundian refugee who entered Uganda through Tanzania.
Kalangala District chairperson, Mr Willy Lugoloobi said the quarantine centre would is still open until they get instructions from the Ministry of Health.
He said that the centre was established on March 29 after the first case of Covid-19 was registered and 139 people were identified as contacts.
Fifty four people were quarantined and 85 people were asked to observe self-isolation at their homes, while being monitored by village chairpersons.
