Uganda confirms first Covid19 death

Dr Henry Mwebesa has announced Uganda's seventh Covid19 death

Four months after Uganda registered its first Covid19 case, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has confirmed the country’s first Coronavirus death.

MoH’s director general of health services Dr Henry Mwebesa confirmed the first Covid19 death at a July 23 press conference.

The deceased was a 34-year old Ugandan female, a resident of Namisindwa District who presented with Covid19-like signs and symptoms: fever,dry cough,headache and difficulty in breathing.

“The deceased was initially admitted to Wasungui HC II on Wednesday, 15th July, 2020 and treated for severe pneumonia,” read a MoH statement.

“However, on Monday, 20th July, 2020, she was transferred to Joy Hospice health facility, in Mbale District, where she was isolated in the female ward.”

WHAT DR MWEBESA SAID ABOUT UGANDA’S FIRST COVID19 DEATH

While in isolation, the patient’s condition deteriorated with difficulty in breathing, cough, chills and headache. Unfortunately, she passed on on Tuesday 21st July, 2020 at 2:00am.

She was buried on 23rd July 2020 as per Safe Dignified Burial procedures.

In our earlier report we had indicated that the deceased was not a Ugandan. Further investigations have since established that she was a Ugandan from Manafwa, Bubulo East, Namabya- Namunyali- Sisongofwa.

The postmortem samples from the deceased were confirmed positive for SARS-COV-2 by 4 laboratories: UVRI, CPHL, Tororo and Makerere. In addition, findings at postmortem showed features of acute pneumonia; findings that are consistent with COVID-19 infection.

The Namasindwa District Task Force has been reactivated to coordinate the district response. So far, thirty ( 30) contacts to the deceased have been listed and placed under quarantine by the health authorities in Namisindwa (n=18) and Mbale (n=12) districts.

The listed contacts so far include family members, and healthcare workers. The process of contact identification and listing is still ongoing, and we believe the number of contacts may increase as the extensive epidemiological investigation evolves.

The contacts will be monitored daily for fourteen (14) days as per our protocol by district surveillance teams supported by Ministry of Health experts who will be deployed in the district.

Per our protocol, the contacts are only retired from the contact list after testing negative for COVID-19 after the mandatory 14-day follow up.

Read It’s real: WHO, Health Ministry warn Ugandans after Namisindwa Covid19 Death

Samuel Kamugisha

Samuel Kamugisha is a Ugandan journalist, editor, language instructor, poet, fiction and non-fiction writer. A Makerere University graduate of Journalism and Communication with a decade-long experience in news reporting, writing and editing, Kamugisha is Editor at The Pearl Times. Most of his previous work was published by The Observer. When he is not doing journalism work -- which is rare -- Kamugisha will be reading or writing a short story or a poem, or caught up in the writer's block.