Queries as Uganda adds 746 to Covid-19 deaths tally

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