Ray of hope as Uganda registers sharp decline of Covid patients
A man receives a Covid-19 jab in Kampala last year. The Health ministry says at least 14.5 million of the targeted 22 Ugandans have received their first dose. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The decline in the number of hospitalised patients is being seen at a time when the country has seen a huge decline in new cases of infections reported per day.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that the country has only two hospitalised Covid-19 patients, a sharp decline when compared to 435 who were in admission on January 16.
Dr Charles Olaro, the director of clinical services at the ministry, told this publication on Tuesday that the two patients with moderate to severe Covid-19 are at St Mary’s Hospital Lacor, a private non-profit facility in Gulu.
Dr Olaro and other health experts have attributed the decline to the increase in Covid-19 vaccination coverage and the mild Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is driving infections in the country.
“The uptake of vaccination has been good and there are preventive measures that people are observing individually, although people are throwing away masks. Vaccination may not stop you from getting infected but if you get the infection, it will be mild,” he said.
At least 14.5 million of the targeted 22 Ugandans have received their first dose, while nine million are fully vaccinated, according to the ministry.
The decline in the number of hospitalised patients is being seen at a time when the country has seen a huge decline in new cases of infections reported per day.
In the last three days, our analysis found that the ministry has been reporting an average of four new cases per day, which is also a sharp decline when compared to 1,423 cases reported on January 1, the highest number recorded in one day this year.
With few people catching the infection and getting hospitalised, the cumulative number of deaths has stagnated at 3,596 in the last six days.
