Uganda's New Covid-19 Cases Continue to Drop

The Ministry of Health said the number of Covid-19 cases in Uganda is continuously dropping, dismissing reports that the country had entered the third wave.

"... there is a WhatsApp message making rounds claiming that the country has already entered the third wave, a claim that is not true. We continue to observe a decline in the number of cases," reads the ministry's statement.

"The circulating WhatApp message claims that Mulago National Referral Hospital is full to capacity, which is not true. Mulago Hospital has in the past week been having an average of 24 patients admitted and receiving COVID-19 treatment. As of 31st August, active admissions in both public and private health facilities stood at 449 patients, out of which 26 cases were admitted with private facilities." 

The ministry's Senior Public Relations Officer Emmanuel Ainebyoona, however, noted some districts, especially those near the border points -- had started seeing an increase in transmission rates.

"The Ministry is currently monitoring an increase in COVID-19 transmission in some parts of the country like Teso Sub-region in the districts of Soroti, Serere, Ngora, Serere, Kumi and Bukedea," he said.

"Other parts of the country registering an increase in COVID-19 are the districts of Rubanda, Kabale, Koboko, Obongi, Rukiga, among others. The Ministry of Health working with partners has already deployed a surge team to support the districts in containing the building clusters."

As of August 31, the Ministry had registered 120, 208 cases cumulatively since March 2020, out of which 95,590 recoveries have been registered and 3,031 people have succumbed due to the respiratory illness.

Ainebyoona also revealed that a total of 1,376,986 people had been vaccinated, with 977,889 getting only one dose and 399,097 receiving both.