By Ritah Ainembabazi
The ministry of health has this morning flagged off survey teams for rapid assessment exercise to estimate the prevalence of Covid-19 in Ugandan communities.
The survey team will evaluate if there is community transmission of the virus in Uganda, estimate the extent of community transmission and compare the performance of various diagnostic tests.
While flagging off the team at the ministry of health headquarters, the line minister Jane Ruth Acheng said a representative population of Uganda is going to be included in the assessment.
The categories of people to be assessed include truck drivers and communities along their routes, boarder crossing points and their communities, health workers, market vendors, religious leaders, weighing bridge areas and the community, roads law enforcement officers, police and prison cells, teachers at selected schools, taxi drivers and fish communities among others.
She said a total of 200,000 Ugandans will be asked to provide brief information about themselves and the blood and nasapharyngeal swab will be collected to test for Covid-19.
“The results of this survey will guide us on the next steps/ strategies in our response to the pandemic” minister Acheng said
Uganda is currently under lockdown in order to limit community transmission of covid-19. A total of 79 covid-19 cases have been registered in the country with 47 recoveries and zero death.
