KAMPALA, Uganda
Government of Uganda has introduced a Shs 240,500 ($65) 'cost recovery fee for coronavirus testing services.'
Ministry
of Health says in a letter dated August 27, 2020, that owing to a spike in
coronavirus cases and the many requests from organizations and companies
seeking to have their staff tested, it has become difficult to sustain free
testing due to the inadequate in-country stock of test kits and resource
constraints.
”In
view of the above fact therefore, the government has introduced a testing fee
of US$65…or [Shs] 240,500…per test for certain categories of individuals and
organizations. This is a cost recovery mechanism that will enable the ministry
of Health to acquire more test kits for continued access to testing services in
the country.”
Among the
categories of people to charged for the coronavirus testing are truck drivers,
individuals seeking to know their COVID-19 status, organizations (both
government and private) who wish to test their staff, Ugandans returning from
abroad and visitors arriving in the country.
The money is payable to Stanbic bank under account name; MOH COVID-19 TESTING FUNDS and account number 9030017657983. The ministry, however, notes that testing will continue to be free of charge for patients who present to health facilities with COVID-19 symptoms, contacts of people who tested positive for COVID-19, community surveys, front line health workers and surveillance samples.
The letter is signed by Geoffrey Sseremba on behalf of the permanent secretary Dr Diana Atwine. Uganda has registered yet another coronavirus death of a 65-year-old male and resident of Mbale district in eastern Uganda. Also, another 81 new cases have been confirmed from the 3,890 samples tested on Saturday.
The
cumulative total cases have now risen to 2,928 with 1,288
recoveries. As of today August 30, at least 375,788 samples have been
tested for coronavirus.
Globally, 25,323,189 cases with 849,002 deaths have been confirmed. 17,640,135 people have recovered from the virus as of August 30.
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