The Resident District Commissioner of Namisindwa, Mweso Wamoto has dismissed the rumours that the body of Eunice Chimatale, the first Ugandan COVID-19 death was unearthed and feasted on by dogs.
Eunice Chimatale was the first Ugandan to die of #Coronavirus. She succumbed to the virus at Joy Hospice centre in Mbale on 22nd July 2020.
She was hastily buried by the Ministry of Health specialized team in Sisongofwa village in Namabya Sub-county, eastern Uganda.
During the Parliament session on Tuesday 28th July 2020, the District Woman MP Grace Watuwa told the house that the body of late Chimatala was badly buried and that the entire area was stinking.
Watuma told the Parliament that she was so disappointed with the way the government handled the issue.
The Namisindwa Woman MP added that the residents and the security officers have started abandoning the village because of the odour from the decomposing body.
Richard Ssituma, the GISO added that the graveyard had developed big cracks and this had enabled dogs to ransack the grave.
However, Wamoto the RDC has trashed all these false allegations claiming that when the cracks developed, health personnel from Mbale Regional Referral Hospital rectified the problem.
He also argued that the cracks on the grave developed due to the loose soils of their land, as a result of rain, not due to poor burial as the Woman MP and the GISO reported.
''The soils of our area are weak. Chimatale’s body was properly buried following the standard burial procedures by the team sent by the Ministry of Health through the Mbale director. The crack on the grave was due to the heavy rains and as we speak now, the team came from Mbale and the crack was fixed. So the grave is now okay. The dogs have not eaten the body." Wamoto told the press.
In the meantime, the search for all the contacts of the late Chimatale is still on. Among others include the bodaboda cyclist who rode her to Joy Hospice Hospital where she died.
Wamoto articulates that the Namisindwa task force has notified the public to provide any information about the Boda Boda man, to help stem the spread of the virus into the entire community.
As the District health department intensifies the search for Eunice’s contacts, so far 90 people have been quarantined at Magale Secondary School in Namisindwa district and more are in other quarantine centres.
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