As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Uganda wanes, the Uganda Prison Services have turned the Kampala Remand facility into the High Dependency Unit (HDU) Center for inmates in preparation for the anticipated third wave of the dreaded disease in the country.
Recently, Scientists in the Country warned of a third wave saying that this will happen if there is no persistent behavioral change towards the spread factors.
Last week, the government through the Ministry of Health named ten districts in the country include, Soroti, Kumi, Ngora, Serere and Bukedea all in Teso Sub-region and Rubanda, Kabale, Obongi, Koboko and Bundibugyo as the new hotspots for the Covid-19 amid increasing threats of third wave.
Addressing the media in Kampala, the Prison Spokesperson Frank Baine says that they have evacuated all inmates from this prison to other detention facilities and created it as a treatment center for Covid-19 with well fully equipped HDU beds that will accomodate 300 patients in the anticipated third wave of the pandemic.
He adds that this is done because the facility is near the major hospitals in Kampala which can render support once the number increases. He further says that the Prison staff have also been prepared for their isolation treatment center at Luzira that accommodates 25 patients.
Initially, Prison Services had established the Covid-19 isolation center in Kitalya prison.
Currently, there is a 2009 cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in prisons across the country with 1822 registered recoveries and 195 patients on treatment but in good condition with hopes of recovering. Only five people have succumbed to covid-19 among them are three inmates, one prison staff and a relative of the staff.
By press time, the Prison services is having a total of 6522 inmates in the 249 facilities of which 30178 are convicts, 34940 are on remand, 84 are debtors and 246 are children born in prisons.