Four mothers and 38 babies have died in Kabale district since the Covid-19 lock down was announced in March this year.

This is contained in a report by the District Health Department following a survey in health facilities across the district conducted between April and June this year.

Alfred Besigensi, the acting Kabale District Health Officer, says 18 of the babies died during birth while 6 died within the first week of birth.

He said they also registered 18 fetal intrauterine deaths. According to Besigensi, the four mothers who died arrived at health facilities with complications.

He explained that the mothers couldn’t make it to the health facilities in time because of transport hardships.

He however, said despite the loss, 1938 babies were born normally out of the 1896 live births that were recorded.

Besigensi explained that although many mothers arrived late at health facilities due to transport challenges, health workers played their part.

Yasin Kakooza, a resident of Rushaki in Southern division in Kabale municipality, said his wife went into labor in April at night but he couldn’t to get out of his house to secure clearance to rush her to hospital because of the night time curfew guidelines.

He said that by the time he was cleared to rush his wife to the hospital in the morning, it was to late to save the baby.

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