Uganda has registered 36 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 593.
According to the Ministry of Health, all the new cases are Ugandans from alerts and contacts of previous infected people.
“Nine are frontline health workers from Kampala,one is a contact from Buvuma, 15 contacts are from Kyotera, two contacts are from Mayugec, one contact is from Pader and eight contacts are from Yumbe,” the Ministry posted on it social media page on Saturday.
” All contacts to previously confirmed cases were under quarantine at the time of test.”
The new cases are from 1310 samples that were carried out on Friday.
Meanwhile, Uganda has 82 recoveries and no deaths.
Health workers at risk:
Apart from the latest nine cases of frontline health workers, early this week, the Ministry confirmed that seven health practitioners had tested positive for the virus. The infected workers included three nurses, two doctors and two senior level staff.
Two of the seven workers were from Lira Regional Referral Hospital. The duo, a lead nurse and medical officer from Lira Hospital have since been admitted at Entebbe Regional Referral Hospital while the rest are at Mulago Specialised Hospital.
Entebbe Hospital Director, Dr Moses Muwanga says that the Lira Hospital staff are stable and under close monitoring. The hospital currently has 45 patients most of whom are long distance truck drivers.
The ministry said that experts in Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC), Case management and Psychosocial management are investigating what could have happened. However, Dr Stephen Ayella, the Deputy President of Uganda Medical Association hinted on inexperience and staffing shortfalls as possible leads at Lira Hospital.
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