Government cuts Covid-19 testing charges

The Ministry of Health Saturday said they had reduced testing charges for people seeking testing services in the government laboratories from  US $65 (about Shs240,500) to US$ 50 (Shs185,000).

This will apply to truck drivers at the different points of entry, individuals seeking to know their Covid-19 status, people seeking Covid-19 certificates for international travel, organisations (both government and private) that wish to test their staff for purposes of prevention and Ugandans and visitors from abroad without negative Covid-19 certificates, among others.

The ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr Diana Atwine said the reduction in testing charges is as a result of reduced cost of transporting laboratory testing kits and other supplies from the point of manufacture to the country due to resumption of international flights.

“Ministry of Health has reduced the cost of testing for COVID-19 from USD 65$ (about Shs240,500) to USD 50$ (about Shs185,000). This is against the background that the cost of transporting lab test kits and other supplies has since reduced due to the resumption of international flights,” Ms Atwine said.

She, however, stressed that government will continue offering free testing services to patients who present to health facilities with Covid-19 symptoms, contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19, community surveys to establish the extent of spread of the virus, surveillance samples and frontline healthcare workers.

This comes after the Ministry of Health on Friday confirmed 122 new Covid-19 infections as number of virus cases rose to 11,163.

The Ministry also confirmed one more death as fatalities rose to 99.

So far, 7,269 people who previously tested positive for the virus have recovered and been discharged from hospitals across the country since March 21, when the virus outbreak was confirmed in the country.

A total of 532, 332 samples have been tested for the virus since March this year.