The ministry of health has today officially received Mandela National Stadium Namboole stadium as a temporary COVID-19 treatment unit.
This follows three months rehabilitation activities of the facility by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to make it habitable.
According to the ministry, the purpose of this facility is to handle COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms who don’t need frequent monitoring.
This, the ministry says will preserve the much needed space in hospitals for taking care of people who have severe COVID-19 symptoms and other diseases.
While receiving the facility, Dr. Diana Atwine the permanent Secretary Ministry of health said it will provide more space for isolation of asymptomatic cases hence preventing further community transmissions of the virus.
“For us our approach is slightly different from other countries. We believe that if we are able to get every COVID-19 positive person and is shading the virus we are able to minimise the spread of the infection and that’s why from March up to now, we have registered fewer cases than our counterparts” said Dr. Atwine.
Dr. Henry Mwebesa the Director General Health Services said with 3,776 COVID-19 cases and 44 deaths registered to-date, the situation is still under control and they are still doing well compared to their projections.
Mwebesa said regional referral hospitals and the national referral hospital will be for managing mainly complicated cases which are normally 20% of the total cases and some asymptomatic cases confirmed in distant areas.
Niek De Goeij the country representative CRS which was contracted for the renovation works said a total of 210 beds have been made available for admissions starting tomorrow. The ministry plans to create space for over 1,500 beds at the facility.
