Five Mbarara Hotels Closed After Housing Covid_19 Positive Patients
Ainembabazi Dorothy.
The hotels which have been closed temporarily have been identified as Rwampara Suites, Leisure Park International Hotel, Golden Monkey and Africa Guest house and Acacia hotel all located in Mbarara city.
Operations of the above mentioned hotels have been suspended and all their workers will undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
The hotels allegedly accommodated two guests who had been medically examined and found infected with coronavirus.
The Deputy Resident District Commissioner RDC Mbarara Emmy Kateera Turyabagyenyi has confirmed the report, saying one of the confirmed cases is an employee of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and member of Covid-19 task force from Bunagana Kisoro who is said to have slept with his girlfriend at Acacia hotel.
D/RDC Kateera has explained that the girlfriend and the infected person entered Mbarara City on Wednesday, 28 July, 2020 and the girl left for Kampala the following day.
The Ministry of Health team and police are tracing the girl and all the other possible contacts to be isolated for fourteen days to prevent further spread of the #COVID_19 disease.
Another victim of COVID19 was a money changer working in Tanzania who found his way to Mbarara with no official border record to show his entry into Uganda.
When this money changer reached Mbarara, he decided to sleep at Leisure Park International hotel before he relocated to Golden Monkey in Kijungu, Nyamityobora.
At Golden Monkey, this victim hired one room with a friend.
The two are said to have shared one bed and the following day, the money changer decided to test himself for the Coronavirus at Mbarara regional referral hospital and he was surprisingly found positive for covid-19.
Turyabagyenyi has said that the money changer who was traveling to Kiruhura district decided to test for covid-19 knowing that he could not go home without a certificate confirming that he is covid-19 free since people knew that he was working in Tanzania.
The two suspects are currently being quarantined and receiving medical care at Mbarara regional referral hospital while the rest were taken to Mbarara district gazzeted isolation center at Rwentanga which was recently opened.
Deputy RDC Turyabagyenyi has warned the public to get prepared for another lock down in case Mbarara continues to register more cases of Coronavirus.
The Mbarara District Health Officer Dr Peter Ssebutinde has said that the Mbarara district task covid-19 had suspended institutional quarantine in preference to home quarantine.
Dr Ssebutinde has confirmed that Mbarara regional referral hospital has eleven active cases and they have taken five contacts to Mbarara institutional isolation center for further medical management.