Experts call for sacrifice in COVID-19 fight

HEALTH|COVID-19 

As Uganda and the rest of the world continue to register fresh waves of new COVID-19 infections, we must prepare to make trade-offs, compromises and sacrifices, experts have advised. 

What this means, the experts argued, is that despite the pandemic fatigue that people are feeling, the fight must continue. 

"No one wants more lockdowns. But if we want to avoid them, we all have to play our part and the fight against this pandemic should be everyone's business," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) director general. 

Ghebreyesus was speaking during a media briefing on COVID-19 this week. 

Arguing that there aren't magic solutions to this outbreak, Ghebreyesus said what is required is hard work from leaders at all levels of societies, health workers, contact tracers as well as individuals. 

"Governments must continue doing the same things they have been calling for since day one. Break the chains of transmission, test extensively, Isolate and care for cases and trace and provide support for quarantine for all contacts," he said. 

"With these measures, you can catch-up to this virus, get ahead and stay ahead of this virus. We say this because we have seen many places around the world get ahead and stay ahead of the virus," he added. 

Uganda was recently ranked among the best countries across the globe that managed to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic in the month of August, according to the Lancet COVID-19 commission data. 

The Lancet COVID-19 commission in a statement during the 75th session of the UN General Assembly said 19 countries achieved suppression in August. Uganda was ranked 1st in Africa and 10th out of 91 countries that were analysed across the globe. 

Other African countries that performed well included; Togo, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. 

The rankings were based on four indicators of the pandemic including; the number of newly confirmed cases per million populations per day averaged over the 31 days of August and the mortality rate measured as the deaths per million per day averaged over the same period. 

Other indicators included; the number of COVID-19 tests done in August relative to the number of new cases in the same month, which functions as a proxy measure for the scale of testing, as well as the average effective reproduction rate, which is the effective reproduction number averaged over the month, indicating whether the epidemic was rising or falling.  

Uganda's COVID-19 case count currently stands at 11,621 confirmed cases, 7,400 recoveries and 103 deaths. 

That notwithstanding, Dr Charles Olaro the director of clinical services at the health ministry said this is still a good picture. 

"Our current deaths represent a 0.9% fatality rate. The total number of confirmed cases represents 274 cases per one million persons, 2.4 deaths per one million of the population and 12,766 tests conducted per million people. In general, this is still good," Olaro said. 

He however urged the public to continue practising preventive measures like social distancing, wearing of masks and washing hands with soap and water.