COVID-19: Health ministry seeks more space as Namboole fills up

Sep 13, 2020

The stadium, currently equipped with 210 beds, was gazetted as a coronavirus treatment centre

As COVID-19 cases in Uganda continue to increase, medics have warned that they may run out of space to hold suspected cases, a move that could instead scale up the number of infections. 

Namboole stadium that started receiving asymptomatic to mild COVID-19 cases on Wednesday is nearly full, according to Dr William Worodria, the head of COVID-19 case management at the Ministry of Health. 

The stadium, currently equipped with 210 beds, was gazetted as a coronavirus treatment centre.  

In just three days between September 9 and 11, the health ministry recorded a total of 602 new COVID-19 cases. A total 326 cases were recorded on Friday alone.  

There are 34 quarantine centres around the country, six of which are in Kampala and Wakiso. 

Schools that had initially offered their spaces to act as quarantine centres have since withdrawn this service, with the anticipation of the likely re-opening of schools anytime soon. 

It is against this background that Worodria called for resource mobilisation to handle the increasing number of infections. 

"We need to open up new spaces to isolate (suspects and asymptomatic cases) thereby cutting down on transmission. Namboole that was recently opened is nearly full," he said.         

He said congregate areas like factories and other workplaces continue to remain at high risk of getting COVID-19 infections, arguing that the country could register up to 1000 cases daily if schools reopen. 

"People need to be disciplined and take the necessary precautions to curb the spread of the virus. In countries that have succeeded, people have been able to observe standard operating procedures like social distancing, wearing of masks and washing hands frequently," Worodria said. 

Meanwhile, the health ministry has commenced inspection of places it identified as high risk areas for COVID-19 infections. These include factories, and workplaces. 

The inspection, according to Dr Aggrey Batesaaki, assistant commissioner in charge of inspection and compliance at the health ministry, is meant to see how prepared companies employing large groups of people are working amidst the pandemic. 

"We started with Cipla Quality Chemicals, Century Bottling Company Limited and Steel & Tube Industries because most of these industries interact with people in the central business district and could therefore easily spread the virus to their colleagues," Batesaaki said. 

So far, all companies had tried to observe the standard operating procedures as well as continuously sensitising the employees on COVID-19.       

Uganda's COVID-19 cumulative case count currently stands at 4,799. This was after the country registered a total of 96 new cases from samples that were tested on September 12.

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