This month, Uganda is expected to vaccinate nationals against COVID19, according to the Ministry of Health.
March also marks one year since Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga told the world that Uganda, this Pearl of Africa, was going to be the first proud owners of a cure against the deadly coronavirus that causes COVID19.
“A professor who manufactured the treatment for coronavirus in the U.S., and he has donated the patent to Uganda and within a fortnight, the treatment will be made here,” Kadaga said on March 17, 2020. “It will be available on the market here, in Uganda. It’s being made by a company called Dei International. Not that we should be relaxed, but there’s hope.â€
The revelation by Kadaga startled many who wondered why the speaker would declare a drug even before it went through required tests to pass it.
According to her, an American inventor Prof. Safraz K. Niaz who developed the drug, had donated it’s patent to Uganda. They even met with President Yoweri Museveni to sell him the same idea.
Kadaga was not the only one who got excited. Mathias Magoola, a biochemist working for the pharmaceutical company, and Niazi also met Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and seemed to convince him that the product would kill not just COVID-19 but any virus.
However, as we all now know. It was a lie!
Then, Uganda had not registered a COVID case, even though the President Yoweri Museveni, announced a national lock down days later to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Uganda now has 40,357 cases with 14,666 recoveries and 334 deaths.
The information of the COVID cure was quickly dismissed by the Health Minister, Jane Ruth Aceng who said it was false to claim that a drug had been found.
“There’s no research that has been approved by WHO clearly saying, ‘let the countries implement this.’ Until WHO has said, ‘this is the way to go,’ we still know that the treatment for COVID is supportive treatment, lots of fluids and analgesics for those who are in pain,” Aceng said. “For those who are in the hospital with the severe form, we want to rehydrate them, give them oxygen where it is necessary and treat pneumonia, where there’s pneumonia.â€
COVID continues to ravage the world with recent approved vaccines salvaging the situation.
The alleged cure wasnt the only COVID controversy that marred 2020, Kadaga also drew the ire of citizens after she defended parliament’s decision to award MPs shs10bn as relief for the impact of the virus.
Many a Ugandan were angry that while they were struggling to make ends meet with the lock down which had made them jobless, MPs could afford to give themselves Shs10bn each.
However, other lawmakers including her Deputy Jacob Oulanyah got credit after they donated money to district taskforces set up to manage the COVID situation.