KAMPALA – Uganda on Tuesday recorded its highest cases of COVID-19 after 701 people tested positive for the disease.
The cases were part of 5,578 samples that were tested. According to the Ministry of Health, the highest numbers of reported cases were from Kampala with 290 positives detected, followed by Wakiso with 74 cases. Most of the reported cases were from the Western part of the country. This brings the cumulative number of cases that have been reported in the country to 23,200.
One death was also recorded yesterday, bringing the number of reported deaths to 207.
Monday’s all-time high figure brings the number of reported cases last week to 2,165. This is the highest number of positive cases that the country has reported in a week to date.
However, health experts say that this figure is just an indicator of where the disease is and not how many people might be infected. It is estimated that as many as 5 million cases or even more are not being detected.
Dr Monica Musenero, an epidemiologist and also a senior presidential advisor, says the country is only detecting 10 to 15 per cent of the positive cases in the country.
“The cases we are reporting do not reflect the number of people that are infected with the disease. They are an indicator of where the disease might be,” she said.
Due to the on-going political campaigns, Musenero says the country should expect the rate of infection to increase.
“Some parts of the country have not been reporting cases, but this is going to change. People from Kampala and other parts of the country are going to carry the virus to villages and small towns during these campaigns,” she said.
Dr Charles Olaro, the Director of Curative Services at the ministry of health says that with the high number of undetected cases, it is important for everyone to be cautious.
“All need to be cautious now. Wear a mask and treat everyone like a potential positive COVID-19 case because the disease is everywhere now. There’s no safe place,” he says.
