Namboole Covid-19 treatment centre has recorded a sharp drop in cases, with only 40 patients currently in admission.
Just a few weeks ago, there were fears that the health system would collapse with single-day Covid-19 deaths reaching a record-high 58.
Dr Ivan Kisuule who heads the Nambole treatment facility says previously they have been admitting over a hundred cases each day; with some patients critically ill and in need of oxygen therapy. 20 patients died at the facility in recent weeks. Now the number of admissions has significantly dropped.
"At the height of this second wave, we reached to about 100 patients admitted here in a single day, and patients used to come in every hour, we could admit 15 patients every hour...but we're now seeing a decline in the number of admissions. The number of cases is reducing now, but we don't know what will happen because there are different waves and there might be another wave - the third one, the fourth one that is why we're preparing ourselves for the next waves," said Kisuule.
While the facility was initially set up to be an auxiliary unit admitting those with mild or moderate disease and other pre-existing conditions like diabetes, asthma, cancer among others for close monitoring, it was turned into a treatment facility due to the strain that came with the increase in the number of cases.
Of the 40 patients currently admitted, 20 are severely sick and are on oxygen. Kisuule says the facility has capacity to admit 200 patients in need of clinical oxygen.
The drop in patients in Namboole isn't a surprise as hospitals elsewhere are also starting to register a reduction ever since a 42-day lockdown was announced two weeks ago. Dr Monica Musenero, an epidemiologist and minister for Science, Technology and Innovation says the epi curve has now flattened. She attributes it to restrictions in travel and socializing with the current partial lockdown.
In epidemiology, the idea of slowing a virus spread so that fewer people need to seek treatment at any given time is known as flattening the epi curve. Viral infections can fall but pick up again in the near future, World Health Organization (WHO) and ministry of Health have warned.
Kisuule says it's because of this that they are currently restocking the sundries. He says already they have up to 200 oxygen cylinders in stock, in addition to new beds and mattresses - preparing to house up to 2,000 patients just in case the expected third wave strikes harder than the current second one.
But as infection rates start to steadily drop, fears of losing guard linger. For instance, currently at Namboole while there are water points at the entrance, people are not obliged to sanitize as they access the facility. Our reporter didn't observe anybody use the wash facility for the two hours spent at the venue.
As of today, Uganda had recorded a cumulative 86,140 infections since March 2020. Of these, 559 are new cases. Also, the country has recorded 29 new deaths bringing the total number of deaths to 2,062.
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