KAMPALA — The Ministry of Health has confirmed 9 new coronavirus cases from 2,677 samples tested on Sunday June. Four of the new cases were among 1813 samples tested from points of entry while five were among 864 samples of contacts and alerts. All confirmed cases are Ugandans. The new cases have pushed Uganda’s accumulative coronavirus infections to 705
The community infections were identified from Tororo (2), Amuru (1) Kyotera and Entebbe in Wakiso (1) Districts. To date Uganda has registered a total of 299 recoveries.
Additionally, 37 foreign truck drivers, 32 Kenyans, 1 Tanzanian, 3 South Sudanese and 1 Eritrean tested positive for the coronavirus and were handed over to their respective countries of origin.
Meanwhile, four contacts of COVID-19 patients have escaped from Arua Prison Primary School institutional quarantine centre.
The four contacts who were quarantined together with 20 others, two weeks ago, took advantage of a heavy downpour and the subsequent power blackout between 7 and 10 pm on Saturday to escape.
According to a watchman who had been tasked to guard the facility, he, and his counterparts from the Local Defence Unit, sought shelter in a nearby room during the downpour. The contacts, who were all in their rooms, used the loophole to run away from the facility unnoticed. The escape went unnoticed until Sunday afternoon.
The watchman told local media that the four escapees had earlier on complained to the health officials who brought their second test results that they were tired of being confined and that they were concerned their family members who were entirely dependent on them.
He added that although they had tested negative for COVID-19, the four had been advised to stay at the quarantine centre for confirmatory tests.
