One new coronavirus has been confirmed today at the Uganda Virus Research Institute - rising the national tally to 54 cases. Active cases remain at 50 after 4 patients were discharged yesterday from Entebbe Grade B hospital.
Today's confirmed case is the second case positive case this week after another confirmed case on Wednesday. It is not clear if today's confirmed case was under quarantine or a local transmission.
Today, ministry of Health also started tracing the over 2000 people with a previous travel history who returned in the country between March 7 and March 20 irrespective of whether they came from high-risk countries or not and take their blood samples from their homes.
Some Ugandans had questioned if the daily tested samples were not simply from people quarantined. Most of Uganda's coronavirus cases are from returnees mostly from Dubai, UAE with only about 4 local transmissions.
The four patients who were discharged yesterday were being managed using hydroxychloroquine and erythromycin according to Dr Henry Mwebesa the director-general General Health at ministry of Health.
Hydroxychloroquine is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria while erythromycin is an antibiotic used for the treatment of bacterial infections like respiratory tract infections and skin infections. To date, like all viruses, coronavirus has no treatment yet but its symptoms can be managed and the infected person's immunity can be boosted for the body to fight on its own.
Today Kenya registered 6 new cases and one new death. USA once again posted COVID-19 related deaths above 1,000 in 24 hours with at least 1,090 succumbing to the virus on Sunday. It was still a sad day for UK after posting 737 new deaths while Spain reported one of its lowest death rates at 366. Italy also registered a dropdown in deaths at 431 on Sunday. South Africa, Africa's most infected country at 2,173 registered 145 new cases today.