04.11.20 A ray of hope

The Ugandan ministry of health has discharged three patients after recovering from coronavirus, bringing the total of discharged patients to four. It is also anticipated that by Monday, about 18 more patients will have been discharged. A number of people who have been quarantined at the airport for two weeks have also completed quarantine successfully without any signs of the infection.

No new cases of coronavirus have been reported in three days, leaving the total of all known cases in the country at 53. The country’s leadership posed stringent measures upon the people, including a nationwide lockdown as soon the first few cases were reported. The lockdown has paralyzed transport across the country after the presidential directive put a ban on both public and private vehicles. Only a few government vehicles belonging to the ministries of defense and health, as well media houses and legislators, were exempted.

No single death from coronavirus has been reported in the country and it appears there’s no critical case as of now. However, a number of deaths from other conditions as a consequence of lack of transport and fewer health workers in the hospitals have been reported across the country. Yesterday, a woman lost her child (of about 6 years) as she was stranded at the office of RDC (Residential District Commissioner) in the district of Iganga, eastern Uganda. Permission has to be sought from the RDC’s office by anyone who has such an emergency that requires transportation to the hospital.

The lockdown ends on Tuesday 14th of April, but it is not clear whether it will be extended or not. It will depend on whether or not new cases of coronavirus will be reported. Millions of people are living in difficult conditions of no food and other basic needs. So many families depend on daily income and extension of the lockdown means that the situation will continue to worsen. Only food markets and other shops of essential things are still operating. However, long lines of pedestrians are seen on the roads every day moving to towns in the morning and out of towns early enough before the curfew of 7:00pm. Most people still have to work to make ends meet. Others simply move to avoid boredom at home that could cause them depression.

Security operatives have had to deal with big groups of people who would pour out in the suburb streets in the mornings and evenings for jogging and other workouts. It had become a huge public concern as the rules of social distance and isolation were being disregarded. The president of Uganda Mr Museveni encouraged everyone to do workouts from home, in the living room. A video of him jogging and doing press ups in his office went viral and some TV presenters, while reading the news, imitated him live on air!

In the majority of families, there’s a gap between parents and children. Such parents have nothing to do with their children so they find it difficult staying home. There were also speculations of increasing levels of domestic violence in such times, but that has not been widely reported in the news, perhaps due to the distraction caused by coronavirus. There’s a man who was chasing his wife and children out of the house because he had nothing to feed them!

However, others have utilized the last two weeks to build stronger relationships between themselves and their children. We hope that is true of our project families since most of the parents stay home now. Very few operate small shops so the rest must be spending more time at home than ever before. We continue to pray for healing upon those who are infected with coronavirus, and for strength for those who are battling with different situations (depression, unemployment, fear, and others).

We also pray for our team, donors and sponsors and all their families. The U.S is at a critical stage of the pandemic and we pray that you are all safe.