The cumulative number of covid-19 patients that Lira Hospital has presumably successfully managed was 601 as at 18th June 2021. However, the statistic that was instead first highlighted in the “Lira Regional Referral Hospital Covid-19 Update as at 18^th June 2021,” was the scary cumulative number of 734 covid-19 infected people that the hospital had registered.

Other interesting facts in the same Lira Hospital up-date include a reality that of the 116 active patients at the time, only 17 percent were admitted on the hospital ward; while the majority, 83 percent, were in home-based care. Alternatively, why not lead with this at least?

I am sure, for example, that I am not the only one who would like to learn more about how covid-19 home-based care is being done in Lira. I wonder, is it a model the Government should pay attention to; concentrate support towards, in order to perfect it; and even adopt it for use in the future for other pandemics?

Yes, two percent of the covid-19 cases at Lira Hospital are known to have died, of whom two were recent deaths – a 65 year old and a 96 year old. Apparently, moreover, one of those who died recently was also diagnosed with tuberculosis.

CPAR Uganda file photo: a nurse at Kalali Health Centre, which in the past received support from CPAR Uganda

However sad and painful it is to lose a loved one, I know, I would like to think that the hospital did its very best in managing all the patients in its care, including those who died.

Do not get me wrong. I am not diminishing the scourge on our nation that is knocking down our loved ones at an unnatural rate. I simply advocate for us to keep our reporting and analyses within the framework of our country-specific big picture. It is not the time for those ineffective comparisons that we often make with the so-called first world countries.

The main gate of Lira Regional Referral Hospital in Lira City

Using the example of Lira Hospital, overall, our health workers, with reportedly insufficient facilitation, are doing a swell job. Leading with the positive first, the Covid-19 statistics for Lira Hospital as at 18^th June 2021, as reported on the 94.3 QFM Lira Facebook page, were:

• 601 discharged
• 116 active patients
• 16 deaths
• 1 escapee
• 734 Total

I remain flummoxed at our propensity in Uganda to often want to lead with the negative in our reporting with headlines often inconsistent with the content of the story – the positive far outweighs the negative and yet instead the negative is often in the headline.

Sadly, the negative scary manner in which covid-19 statistics are presented in Uganda is not unique to the pandemic. It is is symptomatic of the wider victimhood and poverty porn mindset that colonizes the minds of Ugandans.