Ugandans will have to lower their hopes for further easing the Covid-19 lockdown after the Ministry of Health breaking the shocking news that seven frontline health workers have contracted Covid-19. The seven have been rushed to Entebbe and Mulago hospitals. They were picked from their different work stations but the actual locations have not been named.
The victims are 3 nurses, 2 doctors and 2 describes as ‘senior-level staff” Currently there are 287 admitted Covid-19 cases in 15 referral hospitals around the country, all of them in stable condition. Uganda has hitherto been boasting of a high recovery rate of Covid-19 patients and having registered no death so far.
Announcing the easing of the lockdown last week, President Yoweri Museveni cited the victories scored so far, especially the absence of community infection coupled with the narrowing of the victims to truck drivers. Several contacts of the truck drivers have since been also diagnosed with Covid-19.
The diagnosing of health workers now complicates the whole Covid situation as their level of contacts is high and hard to trace. Medics are the most essential workers during the pandemic, with unrestricted movement. Not only do they come in contact with patients of different categories, they also live with the population.
The biggest danger is the testing of numbers to overwhelm the health system. Government will now have to reconsider the easing that had excited the people, and President Museveni’s next address will be awaited with anxiety, as his pronouncements cannot be predicted at the moment.
