By Fred Kiva
Uganda has registered five more covid-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases to 121 in the country.
The Minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng said in a tweet on Sunday that the patients are all truck drivers; three Kenyans and two Ugandans, who arrived in the country via Elegu and Malaba entry points.
“Today 10 May, 2020, five new covid-19 cases confirmed from 1,498 samples of truck drivers. This brings the total number of covid-19 cases to 121 in Uganda,” Aceng said on the official Ministry of Health Twitter handle on Sunday.
Meanwhile 341 community samples taken on the same day all tested negative of the virus. The new figure further confirms a consistent rise in the covid-19 cases in the country, all blamed on drivers of transit trucks from neighbouring countries of Kenya and Tanzania.
Speaking during the 2nd national prayer on covid-19, held at State House Entebbe on Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni said, having noted the contribution of the truck drivers in the increase of covid-19 cases, especially in Uganda, he was in talks with his counterparts in the East African Community Partner states to have the drivers tested from their respective countries before they take off.
The truck drivers are currently being tested at border points of countries they are destined to. The president reiterated that Uganda could not stop the drivers as many Ugandans are saying. “Ugandans were saying ‘stop these truck drivers’ but the Bible says ‘be as wise as a serpent,’ you must be wise, because if you stop the trucks, how shall we survive?” the president asked.
