Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has budgeted to spend more than Shs1.3 trillion in combating the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic that hit the country last month.
Dr Ruth Jane Aceng, the outgoing Health minister, said half of the money has already been mobilised from government and partners.
The plan, which focuses on eight areas, aims to “mitigate transmission of Covid-19 to a level that minimises public health and socio-economic impact of a prolonged response and promote decisive control of the outbreak in Uganda.”
Of the total budget, logistics which involve procurement of items such as testing kits, personal protective gears, among others, will get the largest share, accounting for at least 61.2 per cent (more than Shs808.3b) of the total budget.
According to the budget breakdown, coordination will take over Shs12b, surveillance Shs59b, laboratory Shs84.9b, case management Shs93.8b, risk communication Shs68b, community engagement Shs6.5b, continuity of essential services Shs114.1b, strategic information research and innovation Shs70.3b, and vaccination Shs2.6b.
But the more than Shs2.6b for vaccination is only operational costs and does not include buying of vaccines, according to Ministry of Health.
Under the resurgence plan for June 2021 to June 2022, government will enhance the capacity of districts to effectively respond to Covid-19 emergencies through deployment of surge staff to support district level investigations, map cases within regions, expand testing capacity across all sectors by providing access to rapid diagnostic tests and PCR testing at national and subnational levels, among others.
The plan also indicates that government will also focus on health facility readiness, expansion of their capacity, improving oxygen provision, procurement of type B, C ambulances, and cater for hardship allowance of health workers.
Dr Allan Muruta, the commissioner for Integrated Epidemiology, Surveillance and Public Health Emergencies at Ministry of Health, said the ministry will lead the implementation of resurgence plan and activities at district level will be coordinated through district task force.
However, the public has often demanded a clear accountability of Covid money spent in the first wave.
Currently, the country has already hit the 50,000 mark of Covid-19 cases with at least 47,760 recoveries and 374 deaths.
Dr Aceng has called upon the public to observe SOPs to avoid choking hospitals with patients which will overwhelm health workers.
“When hospitals are full the health workers cannot pay much attention as they would if there are fewer patients. As health workers get more fatigued there will be many more mortalities. I, therefore, want to appeal to the population to get very serious in following SOPs,” Dr Aceng said on Friday.
Hopeful
Govt to pay health workers’ allowance
More than 400 health workers who were contracted to handle Covid-19 patients are yet to get their allowance for three months. Dr Aceng confirmed that the health workers had not received their allowance but the payment process is being worked on.
“It is true that it has been a while, especially those who were contracted to handle Covid have not got their allowance but also other allowance to facilitate their work but I know for sure that the permanent secretary has made progress in this area,” Dr Aceng said.
