By Mwiza Keikuzi |
A total of 803 COVID cases have been confirmed in Ugandan schools as President Yoweri Museveni promises tough measures on Wednesday next week!
This information was contained a national address he made to the nation on Saturday May 29, 2021 from State Lodge in Nakasero!
He revealed he had come to alert the country of a new wave of the pandemic which has seen cases rise sharply in the central region of the country which is host to the main metropolitan city of Kampala and Wakiso district!
Uganda has gained global recognition in the fight against the pandemic with minimal death of less than 400 ever since the country’s first case recorded in March of 2020.
Mr. Museveni promised another address in which he would come up with tougher measures to deal with citizens who has continuously defied COVID SOPs.
Below is a summary of what the President said:
My summary of HE COVID19 update on 29th March 2021 at 8pm
1. Previous vaccination target was 4.8m Ugandans that met this criteria who included above 50yrs, teachers (govt and private), security personnel, below 50yrs with underlying medical condition. However, this may change with possibility of vaccinating the younger persons. Details to follow after National task force meeting on Wednesday next week.
2. The current wave has seen an increase in daily cases like the 690 new cases were identified today alone.This is a sharp rise since Dec last year.
Side Note: Current deaths stand at 362 since the Ugandan outbreak ( patient zero identified: 21st March 2020)
3. Kampala and Wakiso have the biggest disease burden of COVID19 during this recent wave with upto close to 800 cases in the passed 2 weeks. Western and Eastern regions have the lowest case burdens.
4. The current wave seems to be more severe than the previous waves, with more cases presenting with severe disease and critical disease. Pointing to a possibility of new variants of COVID19 virus different from the ones seen in china.
Current Variants in Uganda include
– South Africa variant b1351 seen in truck drivers
– UK variant b117 seen in truck drivers from Kenya,
– Nigeria variant b1525 seen in truck drivers from Kenya and patients admitted in Mulago hospital
-India variant b1616(voc) seen in patients admitted to Mulago Hospital and Jinja Hospital among travellers from india
5. Total 803 cases confirmed in schools. Possibly fuelled by the various variants that are now being seen in this current wave. Strongly suggestive of a strain that causes severe disease in younger persons; a trend not commonly seen with previous strains
6. The Astra Zeneca vaccine was developed by Oxford and the production was outsourced to India. Uganda procured
964,000 doses and, so far 581,000 Ugandans have been recieved their 1st dose. However, following the India COVID crisis recently, exportation of the vaccine has been put on hold, further posing challenges in future procurements of the vaccine from India.
Solution for future COVID vaccine program:
-Looking for another service provider like Johnson and Johnson, vaccines from CUBA,
-Pfizer from the US requires high level refrigerated that may pose a challenge in our current capacity therefore this might not be an option at the moment
– Continued support for local manufacture of our own vaccine
7. Detailed guidelines to follow next week to enforce guidelines to prevent further spread of COVID