NO CORONA VIRUS INFECTIONS IN UGANDA BUT GOVERNMENT NEVERTHELESS TAKES DECISIVE ACTION
(Posted 19th March 2020)
President Museveni, in a public address late yesterday afternoon, spelled out a range of additional measures the government has taken to prevent the entry of the Corona Virus into the country. In fact, the measures are similar to those taken by other countries AFTER they reported infections within their borders, this giving Uganda a head start to combat the spread of the disease, which thankfully hasn’t reach the Pearl of Africa yet.
President Museveni directed that:
Additional measures to prevent the entry of #COVID19 be taken by closing nurseries, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools as well as universities and other tertiary teaching and training institutions, initially for one month – but to be extended should circumstances make it necessary.
The President also prohibited public gatherings and was with immediate effect closing down bars, discos, music shows, concerts and cinemas.
Also halted for now are large weddings and funerals, limited to immediate family only.
President Museveni also cautioned against unnecessary travel, not just abroad but also within the country and gave added directives to public transport companies how to handle disinfections of their vehicles.
Ugandans returning home from abroad will be placed under strict 14 day quarantine now at their own expense as will returning residents. Foreigners leaving the country now, while airlines still fly to Entebbe, cannot return for an initial 32 days.
As an additional measure has Uganda Airlines now also halted flights from Entebbe to Zanzibar and Mogadishu and reduced frequencies to Nairobi from 3 a day to 2 a day while also reducing flights to Bujumbura from 4 a week to 3 a week. Services to Juba remain unaffected for now.
These preventive measures put Uganda at the forefront of countries fighting to keep the virus out of their borders and past experience with containing the outbreak of infectious diseases now helps Uganda to run a mitigative regime, probably second to none in the world.
