Uganda's COVID-19 cases manageable, says gov't

HEALTH   VIRUS

KAMPALA - Despite the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases registered in the past few weeks, Uganda's situation is still under control, the health ministry has said.

According to Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director-general of health services in the Ministry of Health, the COVID-19 cases being witnessed in this current phase had long been anticipated and planned for.

"What is happening now is not a surprise. We anticipated it and our projections even made bigger numbers than this. So, we are still doing very well," Mwebesa said.

This, however, he noted, does not mean people should relax, but rather continue practising preventive measures aimed at combating the disease.

He was speaking during the handover ceremony of Namboole stadium to the health ministry.

Namboole Stadium was renovated by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to serve as a COVID-19 auxiliary treatment centre.

A group of scientists in a computer modelling report released in May this year anticipated that at the 100-day mark after lifting the lockdown, the country would expect approximately 9,200 new cases of COVID-19 if no interventions were implemented.

The dons, however, estimated the number of cases to reduce to 1,534 with wearing face masks only; 489 cases if social distancing was observed by 40% of the population; 225 cases if social distancing was observed by half of Ugandans; 84 cases (few and manageable) would be registered if 50% of the population wore face masks while at the same time, 50% of the people observed social distancing.

NAMBOOLE

By press time, 210 beds had been fixed at the Namboole treatment facility. There were also 11 ambulances at the stadium's parking, ready to ferry patients into the facility.

Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwine said the treatment centre will serve asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients.

She said the capacity of the treatment centre will be enhanced gradually, to have up to 1,500 beds. "It is better to prepare now than get overwhelmed by numbers later.

We believe that if we are able to get every person in the community who has positive results, we are able to minimise the spread of the infection," Atwine said.

The move to have Namboole as a treatment centre is also meant to free up space in hospitals.

"We do not want to turn all the hospitals into COVID-19 treatment centres. We learnt lessons from other countries that started admitting COVID-19 patients everywhere and that spilled over to other patients hence affecting the service delivery of other cases," Atwine said.

Dr William Worodria, the head of COVID-19 case management, said whereas all patients were admitted in the health facilities earlier, the health facilities were getting overstretched as the cases increase.

He also explained that the nontraditional facilities were handy because 80% of the patients have been asymptomatic and with mild cases.

Niek De Goeij, the CRS country representative, said sh400m was used to rehabilitate Namboole for COVID-19 patients.