Jinja Regional Referral Hospital has registered at least 32 COVID-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit of over the last two months.
According to the hospital administration, the death occurred between April 13, 2021, and June 13th, 2021 during the current devastating second wave of COVID-19.
The same Intensive care unit handled 324 patients between March 2020 and February, 2021 in the first wave.
However, 30 of the 324 patients didn’t make it, while five were referred to Mulago National Referral Hospital and 281 were successfully treated and discharged after full recovery.
According to Florence Tugumisirize, the Executive Director Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, they have so far admitted 156 COVID-19 patients in the second wave and 124 of these were treated and discharged while 32 succumbed to the virus.
According to Tugumisirize, their ICU has 32 beds but they currently have 53 patients. She says that due to the increasing number of COVID-19 patients and referrals from other facilities, they have been forced to expand the ICU by temporarily converting the general male ward and part of the private wing into COVID-19 treatment wards.
She argues that, unlike the first wave where cases were not very severe, most of the patients showing up have severe disease and need oxygen for survival. She says that due to the low output of Oxygen from their plant, they largely depend on the daily 40 oxygen cylinder donation from Mayuge Steels factory limited.
But, despite the current boost, which has raised their daily oxygen output capacity to 70 oxygen cylinders, the demand is increasing each day.
