Cross-border cargo truck drivers will now be able to leave border entry points with their coronavirus test results, Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) in Entebbe has said.
Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the director UVRI, says they are planning to start using the GeneXpert diagnostic testing machines which are able to release coronavirus results within an hour.
"The tests released using a GeneXpert machine take around 45 minutes to an hour. This means drivers will get their results before they leave border posts," said Prof Kaleebu.
This comes after Uganda registered yet one more new case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease on Monday of a Ugandan truck driver who arrived from South Sudan via the Elegu border.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country now stands at 122, and nearly all the new coronavirus cases for the past 2-3 weeks are coming from cargo truck drivers - 62 of the 122 total cases (10 Ugandan drivers and 52 foreign drivers).
The new positive case was part of 2,854 other samples that were tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe. Ministry of Health said that they are tracing the driver and all the people he had come into contact with.
Currently, samples are taken from the truck drivers who are then allowed to continue with their journeys before the release of their results.
Once they are found to be positive, the drivers and their contacts are traced for isolation and treatment - a procedure that has been severally been criticised by a section of Ugandans as too risky and reckless.
To reduce the risk of community spread from positive truck drivers, the ministry of Health announced that it is going to launch on-site testing at the Malaba and Mutukula border posts this week.
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