Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is
a highly infectious respiratory syndrome
caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome Corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
virus. The symptoms include shortness of
breath, high fever and dry cough.
The disease broke out in China towards the end of 2019
and has since spread across the world and mutated into
four other variants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.

Uganda is one of the countries that had the least
COVID-19 cases in the first wave of infections. However,
cases shot-up in a more virulent second wave, driven by
new variants of the virus, with the positivity rate reaching
17.1% and cumulative cases quickly shooting to 84,140
and deaths to 2,064 as of 9 July 2021.
Although the country is a beneficiary of global and
regional collaborations as well as bilateral donations,
there has been a critical shortage of DVT and PPE

Press statement for Access to Oxygen during COVID-19