Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been confirmed to have contracted the Covid-19 virus after one of three tests he conducted turned out to be positive, reported Reuters.
Diana Atwine, the permanent secretary at Uganda’s health ministry, said the president had developed mild flu-like symptoms but he was in good health and would continue to perform his duties.
She said the president would continue to perform his presidential duties but with strict adherence to standard operating procedures for Covid 19.
While giving a State of the Nation address at the parliament’s grounds earlier on Wednesday, the 78-year-old Ugandan president gave a first hint that he may have contracted COVID. He said that in the morning he had felt a slight cold, prompting him to request COVID tests.
In his address, Museveni said that the Ugandan government has worked and taken major steps to strengthen the country’s health systems over the last three years, equipping regional and national referral hospitals with necessary medicines, testing kits, and tools. He said that 225 health centers have been renovated and upgraded.
Museveni added that the government has also strengthened the capacity of the country in vaccine development.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency but cautioned that it does not mean the disease is no longer a global threat. The announcement came more than three years after the UN health body declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency.
The cumulative Covid-19 cases worldwide approach 766 million as of May 10, 2023, according to the WHO. Nearly 7 million deaths from the disease have been reported.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, the Ugandan government imposed some of the strictest measures to control the spread of the virus. The measures included long curfews and the complete closure of schools and businesses. The country fully reopened in February 2022.
