The Ministry of Health on Sunday announced it will start charging Shs240,500 from each Ugandan who wish to get tested for Covid19 at the various testing points.
Following a worrying spike in the number of Covid 19 cases and with more Ugandan both at individual and organizational level seeking to get tested, the Ministry said it has found itself running out of resources to continue offering free testing services.
According to a statement signed by Geoffrey Sseremba on behalf of the permanent secretary, the development comes due to the requests from organisations to have their staff tested which it finds difficult to sustain because of lack of resources.
“In view of the above fact, therefore, the government would like to introduce a testing fee of US$65 or UGX 240,500 per test for certain categories of individuals and organisations,” reads a statement dated August 27.
Sseremba says this is a cost recovery mechanism that will enable MOH to acquire more test kits for continued access to testing services in the country.
The categories of people who will be paying for their testing services include truck drivers, individuals seeking to know their status, organisations, Ugandans from abroad and visitors arriving into the country from other countries.
“A COVID-19 testing fee collection account has accordingly been opened in Stanbic Bank where payments will be made for the mentioned categories,” said Sseremba.
He further noted that Government will continue testing for free, patients who present Covid-19 symptoms, contacts of confirmed cases, community surveys, health workers and surveillance samples.
To date, the Ministry of Health has carried out at least 350,000 sample testing and recording over 2700 confirmed cases of Covid-19 ever since the first cases in March this year.
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