The Government Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) has received 15,000 COVID-19 test kits for the cobas 8800, a real time PCR medical machine. The cobas 8800 has the capacity of running 3,000 tests per day and about 192 tests per hour.
Testing for COVID-19 at the CPHL has already started and the new state of the art technology exists only in 3 countries in Africa; South Africa, Uganda and Kenya.
CPHL is one of the laboratories in Uganda that has been assessed and dedicated to carry out COVID-19 testing, as part of Government’s plan to scale up testing in the country in the run up to the lisfting of the two months lockdown that has cushioned the country against the spread of the covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the public are concerned whether the ministry of health is prepared to upgrade all medical facilities across the country to deal with covid-19 patients in case there is a surge infection rates .
“We want the Minister Aceng to update us about what has been in the last two months about the staffing levels and upgrading health facilities,, the state of ICUs in hospitals, training of health officials; how many additional doctors and other health care workers have you recruited, how many additional ventilators and oxygen masks have been acquired,’ one of the concerned citizens querried .
