COVID-19: 420 recover as Uganda registers eight new cases

KAMPALA - The state minister for primary healthcare, Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu Wednesday presided over the discharge of 11 COVID-19 patients at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital. The patients had fully recovered and had tested negative twice for COVID-19. This brings the total number of recoveries to 420.

New COVID-19 cases

Through a press release, the Ministry of Health Wednesday confirmed eight new cases of COVID-19 bringing the total of confirmed cases to 732. This follows the testing of 2, 526 samples on Tuesday, June 16. 

The release indicates that out of 1, 810 samples tested from points of entry, four were found positive while the other four were among the 677 samples of alerts and contacts.

Of the 39 samples taken from health workers, none was found positive.

Additionally, a total of 16 foreign truck drivers, 11 Kenyans, Three Tanzanians, one Congolese and one South Sudanese tested positive for the virus and were handed over to their respective country of origin.

The confirmed cases

According to the release, two of the confirmed cases are truck drivers who arrived from Kenya via Malaba point of entry while two cases are of a turnboy and a clearing agent from Elegu point of entry.

The other four of the confirmed cases are alerts and contacts to previously confirmed cases. These include two from Kampala who were under quarantine at the time of test, one from Moyo and a traveller who arrived from DRC through a porous border in Kasese district.

The release signed by the Director-General Health Services, Dr Henry G. Mwebesa, it states that a total of 420 COVID-19 patients have recovered. To date, Uganda has not registered any COVID-19 related death.