KAMPALA — Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng who is set to address country on the fake coronavirus cases controversy says eight more Ugandans have tested positive for the virus.
The new cases have since pushed Uganda’s accumulative tally to 694.
The Minister says five of the new cases are truck drivers who entered the country via Elegu (4) and Mutukula (1) is Points of Entry.
The other three cases are among contacts and alerts who were discovered from Kyotera (2) and Arua (1).
Health authorities also blocked entry of 18 foreign truck drivers who tested positive for COVID-19. Dr. Aceng says all the foreign truck drivers were repatriated back to their countries of origin.
To date, Uganda’s total coronavirus recoveries have increased to 199.
Health minister on Friday warned of tighter lockdown measures if the public continues to defy guidelines on social distancing and wearing of masks guidelines.
She says that currently the country is entering stage three of the pandemic which is characterised by clusters of community infections.
“People are no longer following preventative measures. That means we may move into stage four. In such a situation to avoid mass deaths, it may be necessary to consider another lockdown,” Dr Aceng said told reporters adding that it was necessary at stage three to stop the spread of the disease beyond the infected clusters such as towns and slums as the government response team implements extensive containment measures.
“At stage one, there are no cases and the aim is to prevent entry into the territory. The response is port entry controls, restricted travel from high-risk areas. Stage two is sporadic cases and the aim is to prevent local transmission to contacts. The response is containment measures put in place, identification and quarantine of suspects and cases,” Dr Aceng said
