WEARING A MASK NOW MANDATORY IN UGANDA OUTSIDE ONE’S RESIDENCE
(Posted 14th May 2020)
Uganda has amended various elements of public health regulations, among them the key requirements to wear a face mask when outside one’s residence or compound.
The regulation is silent on the requirement to wear the mask in a car when driving alone, leaving room for interpretation and no doubt arguments with overzealous police officers seeking to exploit situations like this.
Meanwhile are plenty of reports coming in that Kampala appears to be a busy city irrespective of the lockdown order and prohibition of using private cars, unless exempted like Diplomatic Missions or duly authorized.
This has caused as much anger among law abiding Ugandans observing the current lockdown and curfew as did the relentless import of new cases over the past two weeks by truck drivers from Tanzania and Kenya, which for all purpose nixed the advances made to combat and eliminate the virus from Uganda. From an initial 54 cases has the caseload now risen to 139, all courtesy of irresponsible neighbouring governments which have failed to test such drivers while still in their own country and then stop them from proceeding – Tanzania standing out like a sore thumb as a #COVID19 pariah of the highest order.
At least Kenya has been a better neighbour with test chains now extending from the port of Mombasa via Nairobi to the Ugandan border in an effort to show good neighbourliness.
Ugandans meanwhile might well suffer the consequences as potentially a lockdown extension looms should the country suffer more such cases.
