Uganda’s first Covid-19 case yet to recover - government
Health ministry’s Permanent Secretary. Dr Diana Atwine
The Ministry of Health has said the first coronavirus case in the country is still under treatment because he still has traces of the virus although he is recovering steadily.
“He is stable but we cannot release him to the community because he still has traces of the virus. Even the coronavirus positive baby, the mother was operated yesterday (Sunday) and both of them are in stable condition,” Dr Diana Atwine, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, told journalists at their headquarters in Kampala.
Uganda registered the first coronavirus case on March 21 and the number has since increased to 52.
Asked about the baby who was delivered by the mother in an isolation facility, Dr Atwine said both of them do not have the virus but the mother is still held in the isolation unit for further observation because she is suspected to have come into contact with a positive case. She also said the four people who tested positive on Sunday, are among those who had returned from Dubai and have been confined in a hotel for observation.
The Inter Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) staff from the different offices in the eight states delivered $100,000 to the coronavirus national task force at the ministry headquarters yesterday.
While handing over the dummy cheque, Ms Lucy Daxbacher, the migration expert, who represented the Igad executive secretary, Dr Workneh Gebeyehu, said the donation was a follow up on last week’s member states’ extraordinary meeting for regional response to the pandemic.
“Each government and every capital city of the member states is grappling with Covid-19 pandemic. The $100,000 donation is just our sign of solidarity which we are giving to the presidential task force in all the eight member states at the same time,” she said.
Dr Joyce Moriku, the State minister for Primary Healthcare , who received the donation on behalf of the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugund, said during the heads of state extraordinary meeting last week, the heads of state from the eight member states resolved to formulate a regional response and also create a collective fund to control epidemics.
