By Tonny Abet
The Ministry of Health officials told MPs yesterday that the
travellers are presenting the delta variant, which is highly transmissible and
is associated with severe disease and a high death rate.
Dr Richard Mugahi, the assistant commissioner for health
services at the ministry, said the tests were done between May 10 and August 30
on 18,907 samples from travellers.
The government is currently testing about 10 per cent of
travellers arriving in through the airport, meaning the exact number of
infected travellers entering the country could be higher.
"The number one contributor of positive cases is Kenya
which has 186 cases, representing 46 per cent. We all know that Kenya is almost
at the peak of the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic," Dr Mugahi said.
He added: "Other cases were from the United Arab
Emirates with 148 cases, followed by South Sudan, Tanzania and South Africa.
Fifty-four of these cases were among tourists."
Dr Mugahi said those tested included 7,500 Ugandans who were
returning from those countries and that the rest were foreign travellers.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the virus has killed
3,053 people and infected 120,662 people.
Dr Mugahi said samples with high viral load were sent to
Uganda Virus Research Institute for genomic sequencing, and they found that
delta variant was dominant in the samples.
He made the remarks while MPs were touring the private
facilities that the government has contracted to provide Covid-19 testing for
international travellers.
The facility is at Penial Beach Hotel in Entebbe and six
laboratories are testing travellers. The labs include Test and Fly, Case
Hospital, Medipal, Safari Lab, Same Day Lab and City Medical lab.
The MPs under Parliamentary Health Committee were
assessingthe preparedness of the facilities to handle mandatory testing for all
travellers arriving in the country.
The testing, which was supposed to start on September 3, was
postponed for two weeks by an inter-ministerial team over capacity and cost
issues, among others.
Dr Charles Ayume, the head of Parliamentary Health
Committee, said although mandatory testing should be implemented urgently,
critical gaps exist in the testing arrangement.
"There have been a lot of public concern ...regarding
whether those who are immunised and tested in the last 72 hours should be
subjected to [another] test [upon] arrival. Yes, science has shown that even if
you are vaccinated, you can still be a transmitter of these new variants like
the delta," he said.
"As a committee, we shall support the position of the
Ministry of Health [of mandatory testing] to ensure that all passengers are
tested," he added.
However, Mr Isaac Otim, the MP for Padiere County, said
government must cut the cost of testing and address loopholes customer care at
the facilities to give travellers a positive experience.
"All the six laboratories have installed the equipment
for testing and this will reduce the turnaround time from four hours to two
hours. The customer care is not good. At the entrance, people are paying $65
(about Shs228,000) but you are received by an LDU (Local Defence Unit)
[personnel]," he said.
"There must be a way of bringing down the cost from $65
to $40. If you go to other borders like Elegu, the charges are around
Shs140,000 and they are also receiving and handling a lot of traffic," Mr
Otim added.
Dr Mugahi said they will hold more discussions to address
the issue of cost.
Dr Ayume said tests must continue to protect public health.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment