Suspected COVID-19 Kenyan truck driver isolated in Mbale

COVID-19-Cargo truck drivers
A driver wearing a protective facemask as a measure to fight against the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Mbale, Uganda | URN | Mbale Regional Referral Hospital is holding a Kenyan truck driver in it’s COVID-19 isolation center.

The driver is said to have entered into the country through the Malaba border and proceeded to South Sudan.

He was reportedly picked from Tororo district on Saturday 2, May 2020 by authorities from Mbale Hospital after a call from a concerned Tororo district Health officer.

According to Dr. Emmanuel Tugaineyo, the driver’s samples were first taken from Malaba and they tested negative and later when he reached Elegu border another sample was taken. He said they will comment after getting the second tests of the driver.

Social media has been filled with claims that Mbale is currently hosting a positive case which Dr. Tugaineyo has refuted saying that the National surveillance team does not have the driver as one of the positive cases.

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He said fresh samples have been taken from the driver and will be delivered to the Uganda Virus research institute in Entebbe as they continue to monitor him. Dr. Tugaineyo said the driver currently has no signs and symptoms of the virus.

Kenya and Uganda agreed to intensify testing of the drivers and relay driving where possible. President Yoweri Museveni said previously that locking out cargo trucks was “not only suicidal but unnecessary.”

Of Uganda’s 89 confirmed coronavirus cases, at least 30 have come from truck drivers. Today, a total of 2,930 samples were tested and all the 201 community samples turned out negative.

The ministry said the Kenyan and Burundian truck drivers who tested positive on Saturday have returned to their respective countries. Foreign nationals who test positive in Uganda are given the option of returning to their respective countries to be treated near their family or be treated here.

Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Uganda have now risen to 89 with 52 recoveries and 0 deaths.