Covid-19 cripples Busoga services

Busoga Sub-region has taken a Covid-19 beating that has seen at least two district headquarters, including Kaliro and Bugweri, temporarily closed and service delivery interrupted.
 In Kaliro District, for instance,  following the closure of the district headquarters, residents are finding it hard to receive services after at least 80 per cent of the workers tested positive for Covid-19.
Mr Geofrey Isanga, a resident of Kasokwe Village, who was found stranded at the district headquarters last Friday, said he had visited the offices several times to get a signature from the commercial officer in vain.

“I am the chairperson of one of the Emyooga associations and I have come here to get a signature from the commercial officer to get our money, but every time I come, I am told to return the following day.
“If they closed the offices, they would have informed us. Members in our group urgently need to borrow money but we cannot do it without his [commercial officer] signature,” Mr Isanga said.

Mr Moses Baraza, another resident, said: “We are in fear because if the district headquarters is closed, then we won’t access servicses. I am here to see the chairperson but I have been told that he is not around.’’
Dr Allan Katamba, the Kaliro District health officer, confirmed that 80 per cent of the workers tested positive for Covid-19.
“We took 50 samples and 36 (80 per cent) were positive, yet the majority are technocrats. We, therefore, decided to temporarily close the offices to allow fumigation, but we still have a skeleton staff to handle some cases,” Dr Katamba said.

According to Dr Katamba, the district needs a better hospital and an ambulance to handle serious cases of Covid-19.
“As a district, we do not have an ambulance to carry patients; if we get serious cases, we improvise with the pickups that we have. We only have health centre IVs, which cannot handle Covid-19 cases. Most of them [patients] are either referred to Jinja or Kampala,” he added.

Mr Elijah Kagoda, the Kaliro chairperson, said: “We request the government to treat Kaliro as a special case. The national taskforce should ensure that our district gets at least two ambulances because we don’t have any.
“We also don’t have a hospital yet it was pledged by President Museveni about 10 years ago. As a district, we only have Bumanya Health Centre IV, Namugongo Health Centre III and only three doctors,” Mr Kagoda said.
Recently, Bugweri District headquarters was also closed after the commercial officer, Mr Patrick Dubi, succumbed to Covid-19.

Mr Richard Gulume, the Bugweri resident district commissioner, described the situation as “worrying”.
“We lost Mr Dubi to Covid-19 and realised the need to do massive tests; so far, we have taken 236 samples and received 65 results, 11 of which are positive. We expect more results soon,” Mr Gulume said.
“We still have some staff at the district headquarters but if the situation worsens, we may close it,” he said.
In Jinja, Dr Florence Tugumisirize, the director of the referral hospital, said they no longer have space to admit Covid-19 patients.
“We have an official capacity of 32 Covid-19 patients, but we have admitted more than 42. We are also challenged by lack of enough doctors. We have only three nurses per shift,” she said.

Mr Moses Batwala, the Jinja chairperson, said the situation is apprehensive.
“In Jinja district and Jinja City, we have more than 264 confirmed cases and last Thursday alone, Jinja hospital confirmed 58 cases. The situation is worrying and I urge our people to observe the standard operating procedures,” Mr Batwala said.
 Jinja Regional Referral Hospital has so far received more than 362 Covid-19 patients and more than 47 deaths. 

Jinja runs out of oxygen

Jinja hospital has been hit by shortage of medical oxygen due to the surge in numbers of Covid-19 patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU).
Medical oxygen is produced in specialised manufacturing units as industrial oxygen and purified over 93 per cent for the use of patients suffering from oxygen starvation.
In the cases of Covid-19, critically-ill patients need oxygen support.
The director of Jinja hospital, Ms Florence Tugumisirize, said almost all Covid-19 patients need to be put on oxygen.

“Almost all the 53 patients that are undergoing treatment are on oxygen. Our Oxygen plant releases 30 to 32 cylinders in every 24 hours. Our worry is that the number is increasing every day yet our oxygen manufacturing capacity is low,’’ she said.

 Ms Tugumisirize said they are relying on well-wishers who are donating life-saving gas for Covid-19 patients at the facility.
“Currently, the hospital is relying on Mayuge Steel Ltd under the Indian Association which is donating 40 oxygen cylinders on a daily basis,’’ she said.

Speaking on Friday during the National prayers against the Covid -19 pandemic held at State House, President Museveni announced plans to start refilling 25,000 oxygen cylinders daily to meet the rising demand from Covid-19 patients. Ms Tugumisirize also said the beds in the ICU are not enough
 “Since the patients that are being admitted are critically-ill and in need of oxygen, they spend three weeks in the hospital compared to the Covid-19 patients in the first wave, who were spending only ten days,’’ he said.

32 deaths registered
Ms Tugumisirize said 32 Covid-19 patients have died in the ICU of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital over the last two months.
“We registered the first case of Covid-19 in the second wave on April 13. We have so far admitted 156 cases, 32 deaths, 124 recoveries, 21 suspects. Our discharge rate is at 79 per cent .This second wave is very dangerous because in the first wave, we lost 38 Covid-19 patients out of the 324 positive patients admitted between March 2020 to February 2021,’’ she said 
10 health workers test positive
 Ms Tugumisirize said ten health workers at the facility have so far tested positive to Covid-19.

“We do routine screening of our staff because we don’t want a staff who is sick to be attending to patients. We usually do an epidemiological review but for most of them [staff], the source of infection is outside the hospital,’’ he said.
 “We don’t have any one from Covid-19 treatment wings who have tested positive, those who tested positive are interns from accident and emergency wards. We have one person from the private wing and one person from laboratory,’’ she said.

One death of health worker
Last Friday, Dr Gonzaga Mankumba, the in-charge of Namwendwa Health Centre 1V, in Kamuli District succumbed to coronavirus at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital.
According to the Kamuli District Health Officer, Dr Fred Duku, died due to shortage of oxygen.

“He was undergoing treatment at Kamuli General Hospital but we referred him to Jinja hospital but due to shortage of oxygen at the facility, we kept on taking oxygen from Kamuli to Jinja, but unfortunately, he died ,’’ he said.

Dr Gonzanga is the second health worker who succumbed to Covid-19 in just one week in Kamuli District after the death of an enrolled nurse at Kamuli General Hospital, Ms Annet Baluka.