Uganda is the least affected among the East African countries with only 160 confirmed cases as of today, most of them are imported cases coming from truck drivers that were allowed to continue with trade crossing the following borders;
- Elegu Point: bordering Uganda and South Sudan
- Mutukula Point: bordering Uganda and Tanzania
- Malaba Point: bordering Uganda and Kenya
Mutukula and Malaba points so far have been with the most imported cases however the health ministry is working hard to curb this issue as a result, The Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) received 15,000 COVID-19 test kits for the Cobas 8800, a real time PCR machine. CPHL is one of the laboratories in Uganda that has been assessed and dedicated to carry out COVID-19 testing, as part of government of Uganda’s plan to scale up testing in the country
The Cobas 8800 has
the capacity of running 3,000 tests per day and about 192 tests per hour. This state-of-the-art
technology exists only in 3 countries in Africa; South Africa, Uganda and
Kenya.
Testing for COVID-19 at CPHL is ongoing in the
country. In the meantime, the public is being advised to continue staying home
and avoiding mass gatherings of any kind