Uganda ranked best in Africa in Covid-19 fight

Uganda is the best country in Africa in terms of suppressing the Covid-19 pandemic in the month of  August, according to Lancet Covid-19 Commission data.

According to the rankings, Uganda is 10th out of 91 countries that were analysed across the globe and leaving it first in Africa followed by Togo, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.
Dr Charles Olaro, the Director Curative Services at the Ministry of Health said this is due to the whole country’s response adding that this is evidence that the country has had a strategic response.

“There is evidence that what is being geared towards the aspect of minimising the pandemic is working. We did not only look at the aspect of Covid-19 alone but also the social aspect,” Dr Olaro said yesterday.

The data reports were based on four indicators  of the pandemic which include number of newly confirmed cases per million population per day averaged over the 31 days of August, the mortality rate measured as the deaths per million per day averaged over the same period, the number of Covid-19 tests done in August relative to the number of new cases in August, which functions as a proxy measure for the scale of testing and  the average effective reproduction rate, which is the effective reproduction number averaged over the month, indicating whether the epidemic was rising or falling. 

The Lancet Covid-19 Commission in a statement during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, said 19 countries achieved suppression in August.
“We note that 10 of the 19 are in the Asia–Pacific region, the highest performing region globally. 11 countries incurred very high transmission. We note that six of the 11 countries are in the Americas,” the statement reads.