The government through the health ministry has confirmed that Uganda has registered the Indian Covid-19 variant B.1.617.
Col Dr. Henry Kyobe, the Covid-19 incident commander, yesterday said the country has now registered five Covid-19 variants, namely Ugandan, Nigerian, South Africa, and UK strains.
Dr. Kyobe said the UK, South Africa, and India variants are more transmissible and mainly affect a younger age group in cases where they have been recorded.
“Variants of concern are those that change the epidemiology, transmission, and effect on individuals. In that case, they might be more virulent and change from one age to the other. They might change in symptoms and in the worst-case scenario therapeutics and vaccines may not be able to respond to them, but we have not yet seen that” Dr. Kyobe said.
She urged the public to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to avoid the scenario happening in countries like India.
“There are five variants in the country. You may also have your own homegrown variants in a few months’ time. We shall be telling the status of those variants,” Dr Aceng said.
Mr. Rao Mohan, the chairman of the Indian Association of Uganda, has called on all those returning from India to Uganda to self-isolate for a week and follow SOPs to protect themselves and the community as they wait for a policy for returnees from India.
