Otuke weathers pandemic storm to emerge an outlier
What you need to know:
- It is slightly more than a year since Covid-19 broke out in Uganda and the country has lost at least 334 lives to the pandemic. In this fifth instalment of our continuing series, we explore why one district, Otuke, has gained fame as an outlier in the course of the pandemic.
In a year of chaos, panic, mass coronavirus infections and deaths, Otuke, a district in northern Uganda, stands out as an outlier.
Reason? The district has in more than 12 months registered no single Covid-19 case, according to the Ministry of Health.
Uganda registered its first case of coronavirus on March 21, 2020 and index death from the pandemic four months later, last July, with cumulative infections surpassing 40,000 while fatalities total 334.
Located in Lango Sub-region, Otuke has registered alerts which upon testing have turned out to be negative, according to Health ministry officials. Alerts are people who feel symptoms of coronavirus and present themselves voluntarily for tests to ascertain their status.
In a telephone interview with this newspaper last Tuesday, Dr Charles Olaro the director Curative Services, said the ministry is still carrying out an analysis to establish why the district has not registered any covid-19 case.
“At the moment, there is no clear explanation, but there is a possibility that there was no infected case that went into the community or there might have been some infections that went unnoticed…,” Dr Olaro said.
Lango Sub-region comprises nine districts Alebtong, Amolatar, Apac, Dokolo, Kole, Lira, Oyam, Otuke and Kwania.
According to the Ministry of Health data from March 21, 2020, when Uganda confirmed its index case, to February 20, Lira District, at 377, has registered the highest Covid cases in Lango followed by Apac (61) and Oyam (51).
The rest of the districts have relatively low cases with Alebtong 11 Covid-19 cases, Amolatar 11, Dokolo 26, Kole 34, Kwania 12 and Otuke with no case. Basing on the data from March 21 last year to February 20, the sub-region has registered 583 cases.
Agago District that borders Otuke to the north has registered at least 52 cases, Pader on the northwestern flank has 278 confirmed cases, among others.
Col Henry Kyobe, the Covid-19 incident commander, said it could be due to limited testing within the district. He added that in June and November last year, about 120 samples were tested from the Otuke, but all turned out negative.
“We are still finding out if there was hidden transmission [within the community] we have other proxies we can use to find out whether cases were actually missed there then we update accordingly,” Col Kyobe said.
Ms Silvia Akello, the Woman Member of Parliament for Otuke District, said it could be due to the type of food that the residents eat as well as the weather, among other factors.
“I cannot tell, but what I know is that Otuke is a very hot district and we eat organic food; so, people are very strong. Even when you look at the rate at which people age, it is not usual years of 50 to 70 years. In Otuke you can find so many people who are even 100 years,” Ms Akello said.
The politician’s claim was not qualified by science. In addition, a number of Middle East countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Iran that experience searing temperatures have registered thousands of infections and deaths, according to World Health Organisation statistics.
According to local leaders, Otuke District has a population of about 130,000 people since the last census was carried out in 2014.
District leaders said the population has been adhering to the standard operating procedures which the government issued and this may explain why the northern Uganda district has not registered any case of the pandemic.
The Otuke Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Christopher Omara, who doubles as the Covid-19 district taskforce chairperson, said Otuke has been following all the guidelines announced by President Museveni to curb the spread of the pandemic.
“We don’t have social happening places like in [the neighbouring] Lira City where there is a high concentration of people. So, one year down the road, we still don’t have any Covid-19 case registered in Otuke,” the RDC said last week.
Mr Omara said the district has carried out massive public awareness which has enabled residents to understand and appreciate the need to observe all the guidelines including curfew time.
Mr Acon Bua Julius, the Member of Parliament for Otuke County, said whereas other districts were illegally operating business such as bars, markets illegally, which attract congregations, Otuke residents adhered to governments directives despite the difficult times.
“Most homesteads still have handwashing facilities in front of their houses and people move with their face masks in their pockets and handbags, and whenever they reach where many people are, you find that almost everybody is wearing a face mask,” Mr Bonny Francis Otyama, the Olilim Sub-county Otyama chairperson, said.
Mr Otyama attributed the area’s sparse population for being the major reason why no Covid-19 case has been registered in the district.
“Some homes are located about five kilometres from each other and during the time of the outbreak of coronavirus, people were very poor so they could not afford to go to trading centres to drink,” Mr Otyama said.
Ms Sarah Okello, a resident of Abongoatin Village, Okere-mom-kok Parish in Okwang Sub-county, says heat waves could have saved them from the pandemic.
“Otuke is generally a semi-arid area whereby most of the time the temperature is above 30 degree centigrade,” she said, without explaining the relationship between hot weather and Covid-19 at a time the pandemic has battered desert Middle East countries.
Reported by Nobert Atukunda, Bill Oketch & Patrick Ebong
