Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has released funds to districts to boost the fight against Covid-19. This follows a directive by President Museveni that the Ministry of Local Government should provide the necessary support and facilitation to regional and district Covid-19 taskforces to revitalise the response at community level.
Mr Raphael Magyezi, the Minister for Local Government, said each district and city is getting Shs150 million, and each municipality is getting Shs100 million.
In a July 7 statement to the National Covid-19 Taskforce, which Daily Monitor has seen, the money was supposed to reach districts from July 7 to July 8. Mr Magyezi said the money will support the implementation of the Community Engagement Strategy (CES), which aims to reduce transmission and stop the spread of coronavirus in communities.
“The overall goal [of CES] is to empower the communities to fight Covid-19 and its negative social, economic and health consequences, in our respective localities,” he said.
Mr Magyezi said cutting transmission through the CES will be achieved through increasing awareness, adoption and observance of Covid-19 prevention measures, support home-based care and mobilising people to go for testing and vaccination.
Mr Eliasto Akatuheebwa, the Masaka Resident District Commissioner, who is also heading the district Covid-19 taskforce, said they had received the money and that it will be used to boost surveillance and support other related operations.
“If a case of Covid-19 is detected or there is a suspected case, the team is supposed to be sent there for follow-up [and contact tracing],” Mr Akatuheebwa said.
“If someone is undergoing home-based care, our team, which is composed of medical workers, is supposed to keep visiting the patient and as they move, they use transport, must feed and should also be paid some allowance,” he said.
Mr Akatuheebwa said they have not received a vehicle for Covid-19 surveillance despite an earlier pronouncement by the government that districts had been given a special vehicle for that purpose.
Last year, there were reports that the funds given for Covid-19 response were swindled by some district leaders. Prof Francis Omaswa, the head of CES sub-committee of the National Covid-19 Taskforce, said they are working with community leadership structures such as village Covid-19 taskforces in districts to fight the pandemic.
“The village task forces and community health workers are getting their money [payment]. They are also being provided with some tools such as thermometers, registers and documents on how to do home-based care,” he said.
According to information from the Ministry of Local Government, each village health team (VHT) is getting Shs300,000 as payment for July-September. And each village committee will be paid Shs100,000.
All districts in the country have registered cases of Covid-19 infections, according to the Ministry of Health.
Since the onset of the pandemic last year, the government has registered 87,277 cases of infections, 2,104 deaths and 61,304.
Issue…Home-based care
Of the 25,973 active cases of Covid-19 infections in the country, 24,977 are in communities undergoing home-based care and 996 are in hospitals due to the limited capacity of the facilities.
Several incidents of low adherence to guidelines on self-isolation among those undergoing home-based care have been reported.
