The Health Ministry has so far discharged 303 COVID-19 suspects from different quarantine centers in Entebbe Municipality in Wakiso district.
The suspects, who have been in isolation in hotels and Guest houses, were discharged between Friday and Saturday evening. Our report has since established that 58 suspects were discharged from Imperial Botanical Hotel, K Hotels (57), Protea Hotel by Marriott (42), Petit Seogone Hotel (27) and Entebbe Central Inn (21).
61 others were discharged from the Institute of Survey and Land Management, Frontiers Hotel (10), Pulkan (7), and 3 from Imperial Golf View Hotel. Nine of the ten suspects who were isolated at Acacia Boutique Hotel were discharged while 8 out of 9 at the Veterinary Training Institute (Dairy School) were released. Capt. Dr. David Magoba, who is in charge of the COVID-19 quarantine centers in Kampala and Entebbe confirmed the release of most of the suspects from the centers in Entebbe.
He revealed that his team is holding orientation talks with hotel staff and management on how to adopt after hosting suspects and what must be done after their departure. There is an ongoing mass disinfection at the facilities. All the 42 workers at AK Hotels were sent home to rest after taking care of the suspects from March 16th, 2020. The hotel had 47 of its 57 rooms booked for the past one month but it has advised clients to postpone their plans until late April. Management has shut down the hotel for a two week’s disinfection exercise.
The situation isn’t any different at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Central inn and Protea Hotel. A staff at one of the hotels told this reporter that the blood samples of their colleagues who were serving the suspects were drawn for testing to rule out possible infection.
“The results for the suspects and staff were negative. That’s why the suspects have been released and we as staff have not been quarantined,” said the staff.
On Friday evening, Dr. Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services in the Health Ministry told reporters that 654 suspects have been discharged from institutional quarantine. He disclosed that there were 244 individuals still under institutional quarantine. Some of the suspects have completed their 14 day mandatory quarantine period but are either waiting for their samples to be taken for testing or results from Uganda Virus Research Institute-UVRI.
They are being held at Acacia Boutique Hotel (1), Mission A and Mission B Hotels (31) and Mgingo Suites (19). Government has also gazetted certain Business, Technical, Vocational and Educational Training Institutions as quarantine centers.
18 Defeat Virus
Meanwhile, a total of 18 Covid-19 patients have recovered from the deadly virus as Uganda moves a step towards defeating the dreaded disease.
Three of the cured patients were on Saturday discharged from Entebbe Grade B Hospital and sent back to their respective communities.
According to the Ministry of Health, another 15 of the patients that have now consistently tested negative will be discharged on Easter Sunday or Monday.
“The Patients we are discharging today (Saturday) have spent 21 days in hospital. It takes time for the viral load to go down,” Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said during the discharge.
The discharged patients will be under close monitoring in the communities for 14 days.