COVID-19 community testing starts in Elegu

Elegu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has commenced testing of members of the community around the Elegu border post in Amuru district. The town which shares a common border with South Sudan approximately 100 kilometres north of Gulu has in recent weeks recorded a spike in COVID-19 positive cases mostly among truck drivers entering Uganda from South Sudan.

On May 30, the border area posted more than 50 cases of COVID-19 from samples tested in a single day. A day earlier, five of the 12 registered cases had arrived through Elegu and 21 cases were recorded on May 28. Several other cases were recorded at the border in previous days.

Area residents and political leaders have since called for the closure of the border to control the number of people entering Uganda through the border which according to them is letting in many COVID-19 cases. The country now has a caseload of 507 COVID-19 patients.

Amuru Deputy Resident District Commissioner Geoffrey Osborn Oceng says that the community testing which started on June 1 is aimed at ascertaining the extent of the spread of the virus on members of the community living in Elegu. It was one of the resolutions of a meeting held between the district COVID-19 task force and security teams in the district.

Amuru district chairperson Michael Lakony who also doubles as the coordinator of the district task force and chair resource mobilization says that they are targeting at least 500 people in the high-risk trading centres including,  Bibia, Atiak, Pabbo, Parabongo and Akurukwe.

As the main gateway into Southern Sudan from the port of Mombasa, the Nimule-Elegu border post is of strategic importance to the EAC region. It is for this reason that President Yoweri Museveni insisted that truck drivers cannot be stopped from crossing through Uganda, despite the lockdown.

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