In late December 2019, people in Wuhan, China, began to get sick with a previously unknown pneumonia, marking the beginning of a new infectious disease, later identified as a new type of coronavirus and named SARS-CoV-2. 

The disease the virus causes was named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2023, and the pandemic on March 11, 2020. 

As a result, the world went into lockdown with the aim of ending the spread of a virus that later claimed 6,978,175 lives according to WHO as of November 19, 2023. 

Pictures of COVID victims who are being remembered

In Uganda, the pandemic cut short the lives of 3,632 people out of the 171,983 who contracted it. 

Three years later, the pain, loneliness and trauma are still being felt the world over. It’s even fresher in the minds of the families whose relatives succumbed to it. 

The Catholic Diocese of Soroti dedicated, Saturday, November 18, to commemorate the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic by holding a mass at Fr Hilders Primary School playground. 

State Minister for Fisheries, Hellen Adoa

“Given the prevalent situation then, most of them (COVID-19 victims) were not accorded a befitting send-off. There is a need to hold a commemoration mass for them all,” the church said in a statement. 

The church invited Dr Wilson Etolu who was the focal point person for COVID-19 at Soroti Regional Hospital, to pray for him and for his tireless efforts in tending to the sick during the pandemic. 

The widow of former Emorimor Augustine Osuban who died of COVID

“The diocese appreciates the role you and your team played as diligent handmaids of God in fighting for the lives of our people,” the church said. 

Among the victims that were remembered include the proprietor of Teso Coach buses, Fasutine Etilu, who succumbed to COVID-19. 

In attendance was the State Minister for Fisheries, Hellen Adoa, Forum for Democratic Change president, Eng. Patrick Amuriat, and Soroti City woman MP, Joan Alobo. 

Bishop Joseph Eciru Oliach led the prayers that drew people from across Teso as well as neighbouring Lango, Karamoja and Bugisu.