By Mulengera Reporters
Whereas President Museveni says it’s costly and meaningless for the government to consider having every Ugandan screened and tested for the COVID virus, his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa has unleashed an army of 10,000 medical workers and volunteers to traverse all corners of his country to have all his citizens tested to establish their status regarding COVID.
The medical teams will be moving door-to-door for much of this week and the SA President hopes to have everybody covered so that his government future interventions are based on more informed decision-making than now when the extent of the pandemic can’t be precisely established beyond knowing that SA currently has 1,326 confirmed cases.
The mass screening is an additional intervention in a country which is already under 21-hour lockdown that has caused many defiant South Africans to be detained for trying to violate the same. Ramaphosa is doing this intervention after three of his citizens dying and getting buried for COVID-related complications.
In the entire Africa, more than 5,000 positive cases have been confirmed with 173 so far succumbing to COVID that has left communities in wealthier societies like Italy overwhelmed to the extent they are running out of places where to bury their dead-making incineration (burning the dead to ashes) their next option.
In contrast to the Ramaphosa option, the Ugandan big man says mass testing is simply inconceivable because with each UVRI test costing $65 (about Shs245,000), Uganda would require $2.7bn (around Shs10.4tn) to have all her 42m citizens covered. Desirable as this would be, Gen Museveni considers it an impossibility because Shs10trn would be over 30% of our national budget for an entire FY.
There have been calls for the MoH to accredit more labs like that of JCRC in Lubowa to enable those who can afford the cost to voluntarily have themselves tested but Director General of Medical Services Dr. Henry Mwebesa says it’s not that easy. He says for that to happen, a lot of WHO approvals have to be obtained which takes some significant time. Mwebesa says the process is on but doesn’t know how soon it can be concluded.
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