COVID-19 Updates

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | 31 health workers have been deployed at the COVID-19 treatment unit at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital. Eight of the health workers are from the World Health Organization (WHO) while others from the Ministry of Health and the rest are locally trained staff from the …

Kitgum, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kitgum health officials have turned to Kitgum general hospital for space. This is due to limited space at the two designated quarantine centres. A district health official who preferred anonymity says that 13 suspected cases are currently admitted at Pandwong health center III yet …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mental health experts say it’s important that health workers are tested for their mental readiness to work in COVID-19 treatment units. Speaking during a meeting held by the Makerere University School of Public Health, Entebbe Grade B hospital Director Dr Moses Muwanga says they …

  Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu Regional Referral Hospital has discharged 34 patients who recovered from COVID-19. Of the 34, 26 are Ugandan truck drivers while eight are foreign truck drivers. They tested positive for the virus from Elegu border point in Amuru district. Dr Paska Apiyo, a …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The speed the new coronavirus jumped from 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases in Africa shows just how quickly the pandemic is accelerating on the continent, the World Health Organization said Thursday. According to an AFP tally, Africa topped the 200,000 mark on Tuesday. “It took 98 days to reach the …

Washington, United States | AFP | Surgeons have performed a double-lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient in Chicago, the hospital that carried out the procedure said Thursday, in what is thought to be a first in the United States. The patient is a young Hispanic woman in her twenties, and had spent six weeks on …

Namutumba, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Prisons Services has recorded its first coronavirus case in Kayiti prison, Namutumba district. Addressing a daily security briefing at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, Frank Baine, the spokesperson of Prisons said that the case is a suspect who had previously had contact …

Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr Suzanne Kiwanuka, a senior lecturer in Health Policy Planning and Management at Makerere University School of Public Health has called for a quick revision of the criteria of admitting patients such that only critical cases are considered for isolation. Uganda recorded a total …

Baku, Azerbaijan | AFP |  Nineteen staff in the office of Azerbaijan’s president have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said, as authorities in the repressive Caucasus nation struggle to contain an escalating crisis. A further 13 infections were also confirmed among employees of the emergency situations ministry and the …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Ugandans are increasingly becoming complacent, ignoring all safety measures initially imposed by the government to control the spread of coronavirus. Although the government ordered strict enforcement of social distancing in markets and all public places and wearing of face masks, the guidelines have been …