The President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has on Friday revealed that 4 more people in the country have tested positive for COVID-19. This brings takes the number of confirmed in Uganda to 18. The president mentioned this on his social media platforms where he has been giving daily updates on the pandemic.

The 4 confirmed cases had been under institutional quarantine in hotels and have now been taken to Mulago Hospital for better treatment.

“Yesterday, the 26th of March, another 197 people were tested and many of them were returnees from Dubai or other category one countries, only 4 tested positive,” the President Tweeted.

These 197 were tested a day after another 104 had their samples checked. According to the President, the 104 tested on Wednesday 25th March all had negative results for COVID-19.

The 4 cases include a 31-year-old man who arrived in the country from Dubai on 20th March, a 48-year-old woman who arrived here from the United Kingdom through the Netherlands, a 48-year-old female that travelled from the US through Istanbul and a 55-year old man who on 26th March, returned from Afghanistan.

So far, according to the Ministry of Health, 1,184 people are being followed up. Of these, 811 are in institutional quarantine and the other 373 are in self-quarantine. Another 1,517 individuals (separate from the 1,184) has so far, completed the mandatory 14 days follow up.

The President is confident that measures taken up by the Ministry of Health to curb the spread of the Coronavirus especially at Entebbe International Airport are working considering that the new cases were already in quarantine before and at the time they were confirmed.

“It seems, therefore, that the efforts of identifying by temperature monitoring at the airport, quarantining the people on whom there's some suspicion and tracing the ones who escaped from the quarantine, is working well,” the President tweeted.

Uganda now has 18 confirmed cases most of which include individuals that recently travelled to Dubai in the UAE. The 18 are now at the Mulago intensive care Unit being taken care of. According to the President, the 14 confirmed before today are recovering.

“The 14 people who are hospitalized at Entebbe, Mulago and Masaka with the virus are responding well to the treatment and seem to be improving,” says the President.

The number of confirmed cases worldwide have crossed the half-a-Million with the United States overtaking Italy and China in confirmed patients. Over 23,000 people have died due to COVID-19.