Busia district has for a third day failed to transfer a person confirmed to have tested positive for covid-19 to a facility dedicated to the treatment of the infected.
The victim is a Kenyan who tested positive in Uganda but he is believed to be mentally ill.
According to the district health officer Busia, Dr. Willis Syongola, Kenyan authorities said they object to the proposed repatriation of the individual to the country for lack of clear documentation.
Uganda adopted a position of repatriating infected foreign nationals. Had he been Ugandan, this patient would have been transferred to a treatment facility in Jinja.
“We had an arrangement to handover him to the Kenyan government just as we have been doing for other cases of truck drivers but upon approaching them we were told that this gentleman that he doesn’t have any legal documentation for having entered into Uganda,” he said.
He noted that Kenyan authorities said that they are not ready to receive him because they are not sure whether he is a Kenyan or not.
The resident district commissioner,Busia district appealed to the government to provide them with an ambulance for the easy transportation of the patients.
“We wish to re-echo my appeal to the ministry of health because it has been our consistent request that the central government should give us a standby ambulance to enable us transport such positive cases when they come out but until now we have not got this ambulance. It’s now three days the victim is here. He is a Kenyan,” he said.