Africa-Press – Uganda. President Museveni on Wednesday announced that the implementation of mandatory Covid-19 testing will be delayed for another two weeks, a position some experts say would hurt public health.
The government had planned to start mandatory testing for all travellers entering the country on September 3 to curb the importation of deadly variants of the coronavirus.
But it was pushed to September 23 [yesterday] before the President announced another delay because of lack of capacity to implement.
Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Information minister, had announced two weeks ago that Cabinet had resolved that the government takes over mandatory testing of all incoming travellers from private laboratories that were contracted by the Ministry of Health.
While announcing the Cabinet position, the minister said the government was going to establish its laboratory in one week and start implementing mandatory testing.
However, Mr Andrew Nsawotebba, the Ministry of Health official, who is coordinating testing at Entebbe International Airport, when asked about the delays in implementation, said a lot needs to be done.
“The government is still setting up its lab but also the required infrastructure at the airport to enable the testing needs to be activated. Work is already in progress and we are putting together all pieces to see that implementation starts soon,” he said.
Issue
Dr Richard Mugahi, the assistant commissioner for health services at the Ministry of Health, told this newspaper they are taking calculated steps to ensure they have a “seamless transition.”
He said they are yet to acquire better machines that will help them reduce the turnaround time.
“The private labs stop testing when the government has established. We want to have the capacity to test 300 samples per hour,” he said.
“The number of tests depends on the PCR machine being used; there are machines that can test 350 samples per hour and that is what we plan to procure. But for now, we are going to install around five or six machines,” he added.
The testing by the government will be done within the airport. But currently, the incoming travellers from 10 countries are being tested at Penial Beach Hotel by six private laboratories.
“There is an incomplete building at the airport [where we will establish the lab]. We try to scatter the client handling points [to avoid congestion]. The sample is picked from a tent before someone goes to immigration and they wait for the results from the other side. There is a space issue but there is way they are going to address it,” Dr Mugahi said.
“We are beginning with the airport but the private sector is continuing at the [53] border points but it will happen [we will take over] if we get extra machines,” he said.
Dr Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Health, said the government decided to take over mandatory testing from private labs because of delays and [high] cost. The government has decided to chop the cost from $65 to $40.
During her recent visit to the airport, Prime minister Robinah Nabbanja said she noted the poor implementation of Covid-19 prevention measures.
Prof Freddie Ssengooba, a public health specialist at Makerere University, said: “Uganda already has variants, the issue in my view is not necessarily that someone is bringing a new variant. Someone who is coming in or going out needs to test because you don’t want to join a community that doesn’t know that you are infectious. You need to be put somewhere to isolate yourself until you are less infectious. It doesn’t matter the type of variant you could be having.”
The government said earlier that up to 697 cases of Covid-19 infections have been detected among international travellers entering through Entebbe airport after testing 18,907 samples from travellers entering the country.
Prof Ssengooba asked the government to take care of the full cost of testing because it is aimed at protecting public health.
