By Frank Kamuntu
The Ministry of Health has confirmed that a 46-year-old Burundian refugee who entered the country through Tanzania has tested positive for Coronavirus after being quarantined in Rakai District.
“One new case confirmed today, out of 1,117 samples tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute,” Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng tweeted on Monday night.
The new case brings to 56 the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Uganda so far.
This however comes after a total of 10 COVID-19 patients who tested negative were discharged from hospital including five children of Watoto Choir, three of their attendants, a boda-boda rider from Kasubi and another individual from Kalangala district, making the total of recoveries 38.
However in neighboring Tanzania, 84 people have so far tested positive for Coronavirus, raising the total number of infections to 254, Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu said in the latest update.
She also said that three people had succumbed to COVID-19 in Dar-es- Salaam the day the Parliament of Tanzania confirmed that one MP had contracted the virus.
In a statement released by the ministry, the new patients are spread out in 17 regions of mainland Tanzania including Dar-es-Salaam (33), Arusha (4), Mbeya (3), Kilimanjaro (3), Pwani (3), Tanga (3) , Dodoma (3) Manyara (2) Ruvuma (2) Morogoro(2) and Mwanza 3.
The others are from Rukwa (2), Lindi (1), Mara (1), Tabora (1), Mtwara (1), and Kagera 1.
The new data show the virus is making inroads in the country’s rural regions which were initially spare from the Covid-19 infections.
The Minister further confirmed that 16 of the new cases were from Zanzibar, as announced earlier on.
Ms Ummy Mwalimu also said that the patients from Tanzania’s mainland are all admitted and are all doing well except four who require specialised care.
