Uganda loses 126 to Covid in four days

Uganda has registered 126 Covid-19 deaths in a period of four days bringing the total death toll to 752, according to Ministry of Health data.

The deaths account for 16.7 per cent of the total deaths the country has registered since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

Some health workers attribute the increase in deaths  to the high number of people reporting to hospitals when already in critical condition.

They also add that a number of deaths go uncounted for by the Health ministry especially those that occur in communities.
Of  the 7,196 samples tested on June 21,  a total of 859 people tested positive   bringing the total number of cases to 74,260 and putting the positivity rate at 12.0 per cent. According to records from the Health ministry, at least 1,127 people are currently admitted to various hospitals across the country.

Dr Charles Olaro, the director of curative services at Ministry of Health, yesterday said these figures might go up given that the results from rapid diagnostic tests have not been captured yet.

“The wave is much worse and now we have variants and they are mutating. You have heard of delta plus. Some people have comorbidities, we are getting critically ill patients,” he revealed.

Due to increase in the number of Covid-19 cases especially among communities, President Museveni last week  put the country under lockdown to curb the further spread of the virus.

A number of people countrywide have also resorted to self-treatment without testing.  However, the ministry has urged the public to only adhere to medication as prescribed by doctors explaining that  self-medication is harmful and can cause adverse reactions and damage to internal organs such as the liver and kidney. 

Meanwhile as cases continue to increase, there is hope as the recoveries have hit the 50,000 mark since March 22 when the country confirmed the first case.

Currently there are cumulative 50,085 recoveries with at least 291 registered between  June 19 and June 21.