Why Uganda has revised COVID-19 tally

Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, Uganda’s Health Minister

The Ministry of Health has returned all non-Ugandan COVID-19 patients, except for South Sudan, their home countries, the Ministry of Health has said.

Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said they had returned 135 truck drivers to their home countries after the president issued the directive to have them returned to their home countries.

Consequently, the Minister said that Uganda’s tally had been revised downwards to reflect the true picture as the number of infected COVID-19 truck drivers would be added to the tallies of their respective countries.

Information and National Guidance Minister Judith Nabakooba explained recently that Uganda had decided to treat only the South Sudanese truck drivers, saying that their capacity to treat COVID-19 patients is deficient.

Aceng said: “Following a Presidential Directive of deducting all foreign truck drivers from Uganda’s total confirmed case count, the confirmed COVID-19 cases now stand at 145.”

The decision however appears to contradict the move that had earlier been taken for Uganda to include non-nationals into its tally.

Uganda had decided during the early days of its COVID-19 pandemic to include non-Ugandans citing regulations by the World Health Organisaton (WHO).

The Minister didn’t explain why it has decided to abandon international law or whether there were any changes to those laws anyway.

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