KAMPALA – Health Minister Jane Aceng has said that they are following up on the 84 passengers who arrived in Uganda aboard the Ethiopian Airways flight on that was also used by the Ugandan who tested positive of coronavirus.
Speaking during the press conference addressed by President Museveni in Nakasero State Lodge in Kampala on Sunday, Dr Aceng said while the passengers did not show signs of the deadly virus, their details have been extracted and relevant agencies are getting in touch to follow up.
“The details of the other passengers on that plane are known, have been extracted and relevant agencies are getting in touch to follow up. There’s a call also to the people who were on that plane to voluntarily step forward for routine checks. They are just contacts. Don’t stigmatise anyone please,” he explained.
The minister also explained that the group was not subjected to mandatory quarantine because they were all not coming from the high risk countries.
“None of the passengers on that flight were from Category One countries by the time that plane touched down in Entebbe. Therefore mandatory quarantine was not a must at that point. Unlike now where everyone coming in must be quarantined,” Dr Aceng said.
‘With the exception of this passenger who was retained, no other passenger showed signs of Covid-19. Even then, besides high temperature, this case did not present any other of the known signs of Covid-19. However, the vigilant health teams insisted on further checks and here we are now with a confirmed case,” she explained.
Dr. Diana Atwiine, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary said that “Most of the 84 people that were on the plane with the victim weren’t coming from category 1 countries and it wasn’t possible to quarantine everybody on that plane. Other people were advised to self-quarantine but we will call them up for monitoring.”
