Uganda's president tests positive for coronavirus

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, announced on Wednesday he has tested positive for COVID-19. The president, who was speaking during a state of the nation address, said despite feeling slightly unwell he is in good health and will continue to discharge his duties while getting treatment.

Diana Atwine, Uganda's permanent secretary in the ministry of health, confirmed the development but said that the president is in robust health.

During the pandemic Museveni, who is vaccinated against COVID-19, was always seen in public wearing a mask and has conducted his official duties while social distancing, sitting alone in a tent on the lawn of his office when meeting visitors.

While giving the address, Museveni said Uganda's health capacity in vaccine development and other interventions like spreading malaria awareness and prevention had been strengthened over the last three years as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to the World Health Organization, Uganda's confirmed COVID-19 cases between Jan 3, 2020 and May 31 this year stood at 170,775 with 3,632 deaths reported. As of March 25, the country had administered 26,406,936 COVID-19 vaccines.

Uganda had some of the strictest measures in Africa to limit the spread of the virus at the height of the pandemic, including long curfews and the closure of schools and businesses. The country fully reopened in February 2022.

Last month, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency. However, he insisted this move did not mean the disease is no longer a global threat.

Ghebreyesus noted the decision to declare the coronavirus was no longer a global health emergency had not been made lightly. For the past year, a WHO-led emergency committee had been carefully examining the data while identifying the right time to lower the alarm.

"For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing," Ghebreyesus said.

He noted the downward trend has allowed most countries to return to life as they knew it before the COVID-19 outbreak, and this led to the decision.

The WHO chief cautioned there still exists a risk a new variant could emerge and cause another surge in cases, and warned national governments against dismantling the systems they had developed to fight the virus.

"This virus is here to stay. It is still killing and it is still changing," he said.

WHO records indicate as of June 7, more than 760 million cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed globally, with 6.9 million confirmed deaths and 13.4 billion doses of vaccine administered.