Government has imposed a 14-day quarantine on more than 100 people of Chinese and Ugandan origin who came into the country from China as a preventative measure against the deadly Coronavirus disease.
While addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Health minister, said out of the 100 people, 43 are Chinese and the rest are Ugandans.
“Those without visible symptoms will be isolated and quarantined in their houses after sensitisation. Even without symptoms, infected persons may be infectious but this is in rare cases. They will be followed up by our surveillance officers for 14 days,” Dr Aceng said.
Dr Aceng explained that the quarantine is in different places to prevent the risk of those who turn out negative from acquiring the disease, though she said there is a surveillance team which is always on alert and following them up.
“We cannot quarantine everybody in one place because some people may already be incubating the virus, others may be free so if we put all of them together, the ones who are virus-free may contract the disease from those who are incubating,” she said.
She added that while under the quarantine, surveillance officers will visit the suspects on a daily basis to ensure they are adhering to the quarantine rules.
Government has allocated Shs25b to handle the Coronavirus threat.
The common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, and breathing difficulties.
In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.
Courtesy of Monitor Publications
