THE STATE OF COVID – 19 IN UGANDA

Abstract

The cases and deaths of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan African countries have been recorded to be few compared to other countries outside the continent. However, the countries in the region are vulnerable to the pandemic because of the health system which is weak and the poor health conditions of the people due to HIV/AIDs, malnutrition, and chronic respiratory conditions. As of April 2021, 40,751 cases and 335 deaths of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Uganda which is estimated to be a burden to the weak health system in the country. Thus, this paper analyzes the state of COVID-19 in Uganda. The study was based on descriptive design which employed only quantitative approaches. The study used secondary data extracted from the website of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in 2021. The Regression analysis and independent/two sample t test were used to examine the casual effect and compare the average prevalence of cases between male and female in different age categories respectively. The results indicated that the growth in weekly new COVID19 cases had a positive significant effect on weekly new COVID19 deaths in Uganda (β=0.004, P-value<0.05). The study suggested that more stringent measures should be put in place to curtail the growth in the cases ofCOVID19, the health centres handling patients with COVID-19 should be well equipped to help reduce on mortality related to the pandemic and Health workers need more training on how to treat COVID-19 patients.