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HEALTH

Health minister Dr Jane Aceng has urged Ugandans to maintain precautionary measures against COVID-19 such as washing, sanitising hands, and maintaining social distancing. 

Aceng on Wednesday, January 3, 2024, issued a statement following the confirmation that First Lady Janet Museveni had tested positive for COVID-19. Her tests were done around the Christmas period and her subsequent remission after self-isolation. 

The minister said that President Yoweri Museveni directed that she explains the high transmissibility of COVID-19 through the hands.

She explained that since the start of the pandemic in Wuhan, China, it was known that surfaces such as tables, door handles, doors, and chairs have contributed heavily to the transmission of COVID-19 via touching. 

The COVID-19 virus, unlike many others, stays alive for over three days on these surfaces. Thus, it has been documented that transmission via touching of infected surfaces and thereafter, one’s soft body parts such as eyes, nose, and mouth appear to be a more common route of infection than the airborne route. 

She noted that this was the reason the Ministry of Health instituted an aggressive hand-washing campaign at the peak of the pandemic, discouraged touching of soft body parts, and even restricted handshaking. Additionally, the ministry recommended disinfection of surfaces of tables, door handles, chairs, and doors. 

She indicated that although airborne transmission has been demonstrated; it occurs within a very close distance of under two meters, without a mask. Under the current circumstances where the State House has effectively implemented social distancing and masking, the highest risk for transmission will be from touching infected objects and surfaces. 

The minister noted that the emerging variants of COVID-19 from the stealth variant, stealth because it seems to bypass oral and nasal routes direct to the lungs. It appears not to stay long in the nose or throat; explaining why some test results may return negative even when someone is infected and has symptoms of COVID-19. 

She emphasised that the method of sample collection, the depth of swabbing and the time of the infection process, determine the positivity rates.

“COVID-19 is still with us despite the declaration of the end of the emergency by WHO. Ugandans, especially the vulnerable, must therefore continue to practice the precautionary measures recommended,” Aceng said.