The authorities in Uganda have arrested seven lorry drivers out of 25 others who escaped from a coronavirus testing centres on the country’s border with Kenya.

The drivers had been tested at Elegu and Malaba border posts where they returned positive tests.

The seven were found in Ndeeba area, on the southwestern edge of the capital, Kampala, which is 191km (118 miles) from the border.

The authorities are now tracing their contacts, National Covid-19 Response Incident Commander Ateka Kagirita told the Daily Monitor newspaper.

“The operation is ongoing to hunt down all the drivers who escaped into the community after testing positive. We are working day and night to get who they got into contact with, establish where they slept to ensure there is no positive case in the community,” he is quoted as saying.

In Kenya, two lorry drivers who escaped from a testing centre before their results came out were intercepted in the lakeside city of Kisumu, a two-hour drive from the border, and put under isolation, the Daily Nation Newspaper reports.

The drivers, one from Uganda and the other from South Sudan, entered the country through the Busia border. They both tested positive.