By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: The Ministry of Health has confirmed that Uganda has registered 44 new COVID-19 Cases from samples tested on August 30, 2020 raising total cases to Ugandans to 2972.
In the same vein, Ministry confirmed two deaths raising total deaths cases of Ugandans to 32.
According to a press statement released by the health ministry, both the fatalities are Ugandan nationals and residents of Kampala.
The ministry confirmed 44 new cases out of 2,397 samples tested on Sunday. This brings the total number of COVID-19 cases to 2,972.
Of the 44 confirmed new cases, 42 cases were of contacts and alerts who included 31 are from Kampala, 5 Wakiso, 2 Kitgum. 2 Arua, 1 Gulu and one from Tororo.
The other case was a returnee from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while the other was a truck driver who arrived in the country via Malaba.
“Four foreign truck drivers, three Kenyans and one Burundian tested positive for the virus at different points of entry and were denied permission to enter into the country,” part of the statement read.
To date, 378,185 cumulative COVID-19 samples have been tested and 1,288 Ugandans have so far recovered from the virus.
The development comes after more than 25 million people around the world have been infected with COVID-19 and 842,702 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
While Europe is no longer the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, there are still significant increases in France and Ukraine, among others.
The number of cases includes more than 5.96 million people in the U.S., more than 3.84 million in Brazil and 3.52 million in India, the three most affected countries. On Sunday, India reported the highest single day rise in cases, passing the record set by the U.S. in July.
In France, the number of new cases hit the highest since mid-March on Friday and have remained high and “worrying” according to local officials.
Spain, the UK, and France remain the nations with the highest overall counts of both infections and COVID-19 deaths.
The rising case numbers are sparking talk of a “second wave” of COVID-19, but the picture is not the same across the whole of Europe.
While several countries are reporting thousands of positive tests per day, there are others such as Slovenia which only reported 31 positive cases today.
Malta also revealed a very small number, just 15 new positives. But it should be noted that Malta does not count new arrivals who are quarantined, so the true number of people in the country with the virus may be higher.
