Mulago turns into Covid isolation, treatment unit

Mulago National Referral Hospital has ceased being a Covid-19 sample collection centre and will instead only serve as an isolation and treatment unit for patients who have been confirmed with the virus.

Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health senior spokesperson, yesterday said the decision is aimed at allowing lower Mulago hospital section concentrate on only treatment of Covid-19 patients.

“We have opened other collection centres to let Mulago concentrate on treatment. We normally dispatch teams from there. The unit previously was meant for VIPs to have samples collected but now we dispatch teams to collect samples from respective places. For example, we have been at NTV and UBC, so we no longer advise them to go there,” Mr Ainebyoona said.

Mr David Nuwamanya, the Mulago hospital principal administrator, said the move is meant to decongest the centre.

“We are trying to decongest the centre, the more patients that we have that are positive, the more we want to have less people that are coming to the centre,” Mr Nuwamanya said.
However, all other medical services will remain operational at Upper Mulago, according to the Ministry of Health.

Covid-19 sample collection centres that have been set up in and around Kampala include Kiswa Health Centre IV in Bugolobi, Kisenyi Health Centre IV, Kibuli Hospital, Kawaala Health Centre IV, Kitebi Health Centre IV, Nsambya Hospital, Kiira Health Centre IV, Kasangati Health Centre IV and International Hospital Kampala.

The Ministry of Health said all other alerts in different parts of the country who need Covid-19 testing should go to the regional referral hospitals, general hospitals and health centre IVs in their area for sample collection.

“There is a criterion, not everyone goes for testing unless you are an alert because we do not want to have that place crowded by people who don’t fit the case definition,” Mr Ainebyoona said.

The ministry says testing for alerts and contacts to previously confirmed cases is free of charge for people accessing government health facilities.
An alert is an individual who has signs and symptoms of Covid-19.

By yesterday, Uganda had registered 2,362 Covid-19 cases with 1,248 recoveries and 26 deaths.
Globally at least 24,105,306 covid-19 cases have been registered with 824,406 deaths and 16,643,538 recoveries.

More beds

Mulago hospital has added 350 beds up from 300 to accommodate more patients. “We are increasing with time according to needs. We have been operating at 350. We are expanding our capacity with anticipation of what is in the community, it is not like those patients are here already. So we do not want to be overwhelmed,” Mr David Nuwamanya, the Mulago hospital principal administrator