KAMPALA,
Uganda
The government of Uganda has added 746 deaths to Covid-19 tally, raising the cumulative total of deaths in the country to 2,012 as of Friday last week.
The
revision, which attracted criticism from members of the public regarding the
integrity of data from the government, saw Covid-19 death rate triple from 0.8
per cent as of May 4 before the second wave was announced to 2.3 per cent as of
Friday last week.
Dr Jane
Ruth Aceng, the Health minister, while speaking in Kampala last Friday, said
the ministry added the deaths after investigations were done to ascertain that
they were due to Covid-19.
“The
Ministry of Health working with the Covid-19 scientific advisory committee has
finalised a clinical diagnostic criterion for suspected Covid-19 deaths but
with no PCR or Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Test (AgRDT) result or with a negative
test result but with a clinical picture similar to Covid-19,” she said.
“Therefore,
Covid-19 deaths will be reported in real-time as PCR/AgRDT confirmed, or
probable Covid-19 deaths. Based on the above, the harmonised death count
currently stands at 1,873 deaths bringing the case fatality rate to 2.3 per
cent. Of the deaths, 1,127 were PCR confirmed while another 746 are deaths
confirmed clinically as probably due to Covid-19,” she added.
Mr
Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, yesterday said the
746 deaths occurred between the start of the pandemic last year and July 1,
this year.
He didn’t
break down when the majority of the deaths occurred. But government statistics
indicate that the country has registered more deaths during the second wave of
the pandemic.
Before the
government announced the second wave on May 5, the country had registered a
cumulative total of 345 deaths out of the 42,152 infections. This placed the
death rate at 0.8 per cent for those infected with Covid-19.
But when the government revised figures for Covid-19 deaths on July 2, the
cumulative total of Covid-19 deaths shot to 1,873, pushing the death rate to
2.3 per cent for people infected with Covid-19.
The
government scientists said there is a new, highly transmissible form of
coronavirus, delta variant is rapidly spreading and driving hospitalisations.
The scientists said the delta variant were majorly imported by travellers from
India, but they are not ruling out the possibility that the variant could be
emerging from within the country.
Dr Misaki
Wayengera, the head of government scientific advisory committee on Covid-19,
said the delta variant is behind the increased Covid-19 hospitalisations in the
country.
“Right
now, most of the very sick Covid-19 patients are infected with the delta
variant. It is predominant. Delta variant is highly transmissible and it does
not respect age,” he said.
“We are
seeing very healthy young people getting infected, severe disease there are
challenges but they are characteristics of the entire wave,” Dr Misaki said.
According to the latest statistics from the ministry, up to 1,054 Covid-19 patients are in hospitals and more than 26,353 patients with mild disease are being managed from home due to the limited capacity of hospitals. This is very high compared to what was witnessed during the first wave of the pandemic. - Daily Monitor
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