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3 new Coronavirus cases, 2 linked to returnee
Coronavirus update
The number of people now confirmed to have Coronavirus in Uganda has risen slightly to 33 from 30 recorded Saturday after three people tested positive to the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng confirmed this in a twitter post adding that they were part of a big group of 206 individuals who were in the quarantine and tested for the virus.
President Museveni also updated the public on the cases noting that two of the three are wife and daughter of the man from Masaka who was among the first nine confirmed cases.
Museveni said: “On his return from Dubai, he went home to his family. After the first confirmed case, his community advised him to go for check up where he tested positive. (But his contact with his family exposed his wife and daughter to the virus, resulting in them testing positive.”
Museveni added: “The third person is a 15-year-old teenager who returned from school in the U.K on March 21st. He was under institutional quarantine where he developed symptoms and tested positive.”
Minister Aceng dismissed rumours that Uganda has lost a patient to COVID-19. She reassured the public that all the patients are in good condition in four hospitals; Mulago National Referral Hospital, Entebbe Grade B, Hoima and Gulu
Global picture
Globally, over 34,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 out of a total of over 720,000 who contracted it. Europe accounts for the largest number of casualties with over 24,000 deaths and 381, 000 positive cases.
Africa has over 4,500 cases with 143 deaths so far, majority of the victims found in Arab Africa.
In East Africa, Rwanda has the highest number of infections now standing at 70, followed by Kenya with 42 cases and one death.
Meanwhile, the United States of America (USA) has become the epicentre of the Coronavirus pandemic with over 141, 000 positive cases identified and 2,500 deaths.
The sharp rise in numbers has forced the US president to push forward emergency social distancing guidelines to beyond April, when new infections are expected to peak.
This also came amid warnings by the White House medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci that the US could lose as many as 200,000 people. He added that over a million people could become infected with the disease.
In Italy, the death toll from COVID-19 has passed 10,000 out of the 97,000 so far infected.
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