At least 200 street children in Gulu will undergo mandatory testing for Covid-19.
The children are housed at several charity centers in Gulu due to the Covid-19 lockdown. The centres are: Favor of God Ministries, St Monica Girls` Tailoring School, Hash Tag Uganda and Generation in Actions.
Santos Okot Lapolo, the Head of Covid-19 taskforce in Gulu said that the exercise will be conducted next week to ascertain statuses of the children since they have been roaming the streets and interacting with many people before they were brought to the centers.
Lapolo added that the street children are also allowed to get out of the centers to interact with members of the community, something he says is risky to their health and that of their caretakers.
Gloria Aloyo, the Gulu District Information Officer disclosed on Saturday that the documentation of over 200 street children at the different centers was conducted this week and the district is now mobilizing for resources such as testing kits for the exercise which is expected to be done before the end of next week.
Aloyo explained that the testing has come at the backdrop of Gulu registering community cases of Covid-19 and the neighboring Amuru district.
Gulu has registered four community cases of Covid-19 while Amuru has 150 cases.
More than 200 street children are being housed by different Non-Governmental Organizations after they were removed from the streets of Gulu City due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
