The Ministry of Health has this Thursday confirmed 15 new COVID-19 cases in Uganda bringing the total number of infections in the country to 160. The Ministry announced that 10 of the new cases are truck drivers while 5 were from the community. “10 new cases are truck drivers who arrived via Elegu while 5 cases are among community samples,” the Ministry announced on Thursday night.
The 5 cases among the community samples are contacts to previously confirmed truck drivers. All the new cases from the community were under quarantine at the time of test. Meanwhile, 21 positive foreign truck drivers were handed to their respective country of origin as per the presidential directive. The total number of foreign truck drivers that tested positive and were handed over to their countries of origin since presidential directive is now 145. A total of 2,101 samples of truck drivers were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday. The number of samples from the community which was tested for COVID-19 on Thursday is 628. A total of 2,729 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Earlier today, asked how Uganda will cooperate with Kenya which also started testing truck drivers at the Busia border, Health Minister Dr. Ruth Aceng said discussions were underway to harmonize procedures.
“There are discussions going on to harmonize procedures. There was a summit by the Heads of State and they made proposals and which proposals we discussed with truck owners, the Ministers of Trade and the East African Community and we shall conclude the discussions on the 29th (May),” said Aceng. In the Heads of State meeting, the Presidents agreed that there should be joint testing since various countries use various protocols for testing as some use rapid tests while others use PCR tests. Aceng also said that there needs to be harmonization and Uganda will, therefore, be required to deploy it’s health officers in the other countries to observe the protocols and ensure that the testing meets Uganda’s standards.
Source: CR
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