Ugandans have been advised to use the country’s first COVID-19 death as an eye-opener that the disease is real and lethal. The call was made moments after the Ministry of Health confirmed the first death due to coronavirus disease in the country.
The deceased was a 34-year-old woman from Namisindwa district. She succumbed to the disease on Wednesday at Joy Hospice Centre in Mbale district, where she was admitted a day earlier after presenting with COVID-19 symptoms.
According to the health ministry, it took the deceased five days to succumb to the disease from when she first developed symptoms of a headache, dry cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. Richard Kabanda, the assistant commissioner for health services says that the country’s first case is an eye-opener that anyone can succumb to the disease within a short time period.
The warnings come at a time when Ugandans are rubbishing the existence of the disease in the country, despite more than 320 deaths report across the East African Region. Many had abandoned public health preventive measures like wearing facemasks or even washing hands.
Dr Monica Musenero, an epidemiologist and senior presidential advisor says that the country’s first death might be a precursor to other deaths.
But Dr Yonas Woldermariam, the WHO country representative says that further cases of death can be avoided if communities follow all preventive public health measures.
At her burial, most of the locals were barred from accessing the burial ground as the Health Ministry’s burial team from Mbale Regional Referral Hospital took charge of the ceremony. Police were deployed to block access for all unauthorised personnel.
Namisindwa Resident District Commissioner Kigai Kimoto said that they deployed police at the burial ground to ensure that Standard Operating Procedures were followed by members of the community to prevent further infections.
He added that although tension is high among the residents of Namisindwa, they are waiting for the government to pronounce itself on the result before they can take any step as a district. The Ministry of Health later confirmed that Chimatala succumbed to Coronavirus related infections.
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