Uganda has confirmed its first COVID-19 death more than two months after the first case was discovered. Director General Health Services, Henry Mwebesa, announced the news during a press briefing.
Mwebesa said the deceased was a 34-year-old Ugandan female, resident of Namisindwa District who presented with COVID like signs and symptoms. He listed the unidentified female’s symptoms as “fever, dry cough, headache and difficulty in breathing.”
The woman was admitted to Wasungui HC II on July 15, and treated for severe pneumonia before being transferred to Joy Hospice health facility in the Mbale District on July 20, where she was isolated in the female ward.
“While in isolation, the patient’s condition deteriorated with difficulty in breathing, cough, chills and headache,” He said. “Unfortunately, she passed on July 21 at 2 a.m. She was buried on July 23, as per Safe Dignified Burial procedures.”
The country cannot be accused of dragging its feet when it comes to tackling the virus’s spread.
Uganda confirmed its first case on March 22. That same month, the government restricted visitors from some countries deemed as having instances of high coronavirus cases, including China, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Spain.
President Yoweri Museveni also announced a ban on large public gatherings, including weddings, church and Jumat services for 32 days in a bid to help limit any potential increase in cases of the virus.
Uganda was one of the first to implement such restrictive measures.
“Government has decided to ask travelers from the affected countries not to come to Uganda because the high cases they are reporting can easily be imported into the country,” the country’s health minister Jane Ruth Aceng said at the time.
To date, Uganda has 1,115 confirmed cases and 971 Ugandan recoveries, according to data from the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The John Hopkins data lists the country’s death toll as two.
