Uganda has lost just over 66 per cent of all the Covid19 patients admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), health officials at frontline of the fight against Covid19.
As of December 11, Uganda’s Covid19 death toll stood at 220.
According to Epidemiologist Lt Col Dr Henry Kyobe, the head of incident management team at the Ministry of Health (MoH), only about 34 per cent of the patients admitted in the ICU make it.
“The numbers are not pleasing. The situation is very bad,” Dr Kyobe said during December 11 Covid19 update.
“We have actually not yet hit the peak.”
The dead also include 14 health workers – from nurses to specialists, according to Kyobe.
The epidemiologist explained that Ugandans had to take responsibility of their lives.
He noted that 137 districts had recorded infections.
Majority of the infected people are asymptomatic, he added.
This means that these Covid19 patients may show no symptoms but continue to spread the disease.
Earlier on December 11, Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general of health services at MoH, issued a statement appealing to asymptomatic patients to stay home and stop spreading the virus.
“The Ministry of Health directs all Covid19 asymptomatic patients to isolate themselves at home or be admitted at designated auxiliary centers. This means that they should not mix with their family members, colleagues or friends for a period of 14 days,” ordered Dr Mwebesa.
“The asymptomatic patients should strictly follow guidelines for home-based care which have been widely disseminated and are also available on the Ministry of Health website.”
Kyobe and his MoH colleagues like Dr Monica Musenero, a senior presidential advisor on epidemics, also made a case for the need for Ugandans not to travel home for Christmas to avoid the spread of Covid19.
“Covid19 is a family disease. Once it gets into a family, it infects one family after another,” noted Dr Musenero
“We cannot predict who is not going to get sick. I think the youngest death we have had is 19-years-old.”
She aslo revealed that the least one would need to treat Covid19 at a private health facility is Shs12m.
“If you are cured, your life does not go back to normal till after three months,” she added.
