source photo: https://ewn.co.za/
Uganda is now in the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic after infections increased by 81% between March and April.
By Kabakura Jean Bosco Ceusi
As the number of infections increased by 81% between March and April, the government has warned of tough containment measures including possibility of a total lockdown, if the situation goes out of hand.
Dr Misaki Wayengera, Chairperson of the Ministerial Scientific Advisory Committe declared to journalists yesterday evening ( WHEN ? Exactly date missing) that Covid second wave will be more severe and the country could be exposed to the same situation India is experiencing at the moment.
As he said “The pandemic often starts slowly with a lag phase followed by a rapid phase, and finally it hits a stationary phase. We are at the moment in the second wave but in its lag phase”
He further added: “We might hit a point where infections go up rapidly and follow the same curbe as it happened in India given that we have active transmission developing in the communities. ”
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, Minister of Health, indicated that the resurgence shows a rising number of infections among children. “We have observed a significant increase in cases of Covid-19 among the 10-29 age group. We registered a 12 % increase in cases among children aged 10-19 and a 5 % per cent increase among those aged 20-29” .
Dr Aceng said some of the mostly hit clusters are the community districts of Kiryandongo, Adjumani, Soroti, Oyam, Gulu and Jinja.
She also stated that “The emergence of the cases in Jinja is attributed to a cluster of individuals working in a factory in Buikwe District. One of them has recently arrived from India, and the other four individuals are close contacts.....They have been isolated at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital ”.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, a total of 42,102 cases of infections had been reported in the country as of yesterday.
Dr Aceng said that the Governement is increasing its efforts to prevent importing Covid-19 variants. Flights originating from India have been suspended as of beginnning of May to shield the country from the second wave of the pandemic.
Uganda had also registered four other variants including the Ugandan, the Nigerian, the South African and that of the UK besides the Indian strain.
Dr. Aceng also declared that “The Ministry of Health has identified five laboratories which have the capacity of testing 5,000 samples per day (at $65 (Shs231,470) and tasked them to set up testing points in Entebbe town to check on incoming travellers from category 1 and 2 countries,” she said. (What are these countries in category 1 and 2?)
Dr Tegegn Woldermariam, the World Health Organisation Country Representative, asked Ugandans to advance with Covid-19 vaccinations to protect themselves from severe illness and avoid the emergence of new variants which tend to occur in populations where people are not vaccinated.