Own Correspondent|Uganda has revised downwards its tally of positive coronavirus cases to 145 from 264 after deducting the number of all foreign truck drivers who had tested positive.

The number released on Wednesday includes the 10 new cases with the Ministry of Health saying President Museveni advised the revision.

“Today, 20 May 2020, 10 new COVID-19 cases confirmed. 9 new cases are truck drivers while 1 case is a contact case. Following a Presidential Directive of deducting all foreign truck drivers from Uganda’s total confirmed case count, the confirmed COVID-19 cases now stand at 145,” Uganda’s Health Minister said on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, Uganda had sent 124 truck drivers back to their respective countries after they tested positive.

So far, Uganda has not reported any death related to the new coronavirus and plans to start easing strict lockdown measures from June 2.

There are also plans to reopen schools targetting the learners set to do their national examinations this year.

In the East African region, Kenya’s coronavirus cases rose by 66 to 1,029 cases. The new cases include 64 Kenyans, one Rwandan and one Somali national. The number of recovered patients rose to 366 after another 8 patients recovered and got discharged from the hospital.

Rwanda’s cases have risen to 314 after 6 new cases were registered from the 982 samples tested on Wednesday. The country also registered 7 more recoveries (total 216).

No updates have come from Tanzania whose confirmed cases still stand at 509 and 21 deaths. The active cases stand 183 but the government of President John Pombe Magufuli has been accused of concealing the true extent of coronavirus impact in the country.

Burundi which went to polls on Wednesday, still has its cases at 42 while South Sudan’s cases stand at 290 with 4 recoveries.
Africa’s most infected country, South Africa recorded 27 new deaths (339 total) on Wednesday and 803 new cases. In Egypt, there were 21 new deaths and 745 new cases. Algeria registered 7 new deaths and 165 new cases. Madagascar registered 45 new cases.

Globally, 5,057,280 people have been infected as of May 20 while 328,194 have died and 2,008,283 have recovered from the disease.

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