The Ministry of Health (MoH) has placed six staff of A-Plus Funeral Services under quarantine in Kayunga District after they took part in the burial of a Ugandan who died of Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a contagious respiratory illness.
The six, along two relatives of the deceased, had picked the body from Entebbe International Airport on Sunday upon its arrival from Doha, Qatar.
According to the Director General of Health Services, Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Ministry teamed up with officers from the Uganda Red Cross and “took over the burial ceremonies from A-Plus and accorded the deceased a safe and dignified burial.”
Consequently, the Ministry’s Commissioner who had supervised the burial recommended that the staff and relatives who had received the body from the airport “before the intervention of MoH” spend 14 days in quarantine in Kayunga over fears that they could have been exposed to COVID-19 disease, which has similar symptoms like Acute Respiratory Syndrome. For example, both diseases affect the flow of oxygen to and out of lungs, causing short breath, and damaging the lungs in the process.
Dr Mwebesa also confirmed that another body of a Ugandan who had died after an accident in Dubai, UAE, had arrived at the Entebbe International Airport on Saturday and was safely buried.
Meanwhile, Uganda has officially revised the number of Covid19 cases to 61 after including the five cases of foreign truck drivers whose status was confirmed after tests by the Uganda Virus Research Centre (UVRI). In a statement issued early Wednesday, Dr Mwebesa explained that the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations require that every case is counted and treated in the country where it was tested and confirmed.
Results from 1,019 tests carried out on Tuesday confirmed one new case, a 32-year old truck driver. The cargo transporter, who had presented no symptoms of Covid19, is expected to be evacuated to Entebbe Hospital for treatment on Wednesday.
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