More Ugandan Covid patients recover but doctors’ allowances delay

Dr Diana Atwine, the Ministry of Health (MoH) Permanent Secretary, presided over an event to discharge 44 patients from Entebbe Grade B Hospital on June 18.

They comprised 43 truck drivers and one contact of a previously confirmed case. They were treated, had recovered and tested negative twice for Covid-19, MoH said in a statement.

The latest recoveries put the total number of discharged patients at 492 out of the 755 total cases as of June 19, according to figures released by Dr Henry Mwebesa, the MoH director general for health services.

Uganda has not registered any Covid19-related case since the disease was first reported in the country on March 21.

Dr Atwine attributed the recoveries to God and the commitment of health workers.

“I give God the glory. It’s not because we are superstars in treating these diseases but it’s his mercy that out of over 700 cases, we haven’t registered any death. We thank all our staff for this. They are confined here away from their families to stay and care for these patients,” she wrote.

Some 28 frontline health workers are part of the country’s confirmed cases.

But the hospital’s director, Dr Moses Muwanga, used the discharge event to remind Dr Atwine of unpaid health workers’ allowances. 

One of the country’s main treatment centres for Covid19, the hospital has almost 100 frontline staff. Each of these is entitled to between Shs40,000 and Shs80,000 in risk allowances per day while on duty.

But they haven’t been paid for two months. Dr Atwine attributed the delay to the tedious processing procedure.

She assured the medics that the money would on their accounts on June 20.