Uganda to discharge Coronavirus patients without testing

Uganda's health ministry has revised its protocol for discharging Covid-19 patients that will see asymptomatic patients leave hospitals without a retest.

Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said patients who have been in isolation for 10 days will be discharged without testing if they do not show symptoms.

"If PCR [Polymerase Chain Reaction test] is positive at day 10, a repeat after five days will be done and discharged if PCR is negative. If PCR is still positive at day 15, discharge at day 20 without further PCR testing will be done," she said.

This will reduce the number of days that patients wait to be discharged after the first test.

Previously patients could only be discharged after having two negative tests. But some patients had complained about the time spent waiting for the confirmatory test despite not showing symptoms.

Uganda has to date confirmed 8,287 coronavirus cases including 4,430 recoveries and 75 deaths.