On Monday, health workers at Princess Diana Health Centre IV in Soroti District, went on strike protesting failure by the authorities there to provide them with personal protective equipment (PPE).

The Soroti Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr William Wilberforce Tukei, says delayed payment of allowances and lack of PPEs is not peculiar to Princess Diana Health Centre IV, but to all facilities in the district, if not the whole country.

It would now appear that Uganda's response to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic is being hampered by lack of access to personal protective equipment such as gloves, medical masks, goggles, face shields, gowns and aprons, among others.

According to a statement that the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, issued in Parliament on April 7, the biggest percentage of the government's budget for the Covid-19 response is aimed at catering for logistics, especially PPEs and laboratory testing kits for six months' supply.

The president of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union, Mr Justus Cherop Kiplagat, says whereas government has been providing some PPEs, most of the health workers have been using their own money to procure PPEs to protect themselves from being infected and possibly infecting others.