Arua district struggles to manage children in quarantine centres

Members of Arua district covid19 task force during a meeting in which they discussed how to handle children in quarantine centers. Courtesy photo

Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Members of the Arua district COVID-19 taskforce are struggling to manage more than 20 children whose mothers are isolated at Arua Prison Primary School quarantine centre.

Norman Cwinyai, the team leader of the COVID-19 surveillance and laboratory services team in Arua said that up to 20 children are in the quarantine centre while one is with the mother at the case management centre in Arua hospital. According to the task force, a number of the children are breastfeeding and cannot therefore be separated from their mothers.

Cwinyai says that there is an urgent need for partners to come to the aid of the children who are threatened with hunger as food is running out of stock.

Dr Filbert Nyeko, the director of Arua hospital says that in addition to managing children at the treatment centre, they lack baby diapers and sanitary facilities for the mothers. According to Dr Nyeko, there is no budgetary provision to cater for the needs of the children.

Currently, Arua district has five positive cases under management, 81 suspected cases in quarantine and 26 in self-quarantine. They include refugees and high-risk travellers.

Arua Resident City Commissioner Nahori Oya has called on all partners to render support to the task force to address the challenges that come with the presence of mothers in quarantine.
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