Coronavirus: Museveni Rules Out Possibility of Stopping Cargo Trucks

Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has ruled out the possibility of stopping cargo truck drivers from entering the country since it is a landlocked country.

According to Museveni, Uganda’s solution lays in ensuring that the truck drivers are allowed in the country are free of Coronavirus.

On Thursday night, Uganda announced new 11 coronavirus cases, the highest number of cases in a single day since the breakout in the country.

In a message sent out on tweeter late on Thursday night, the Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said 11 truck drivers have tested positive for Covid-19.

Six of the truck drivers are Tanzanians while the remaining are Kenyans. The news cases brings the number to 74, the number of positive Covid-19 cases in Uganda.

Despite this, Museveni said the health minister who is attending the East African Community Ministers’ of health meeting has been given Uganda’s position to relay to the community.

Uganda’s head of state said that part of the solutions includes deploying rapid testing at the border so that drivers know their status before entering the country.

However, even regular testing Museveni said could be considered although he was quick to add this might be problematic because of crowding at the border especially where drivers have to wait for their results before proceeding to their destinations.

There have been calls that Ugandan drivers take over from the border to deliver the trucks to their final destination.

Museveni said they were considering whether to allow only one person in the truck.

“We don’t need a turn boy because the roads in Uganda and I hope in other countries are good. We have also got petrol stations every 15 miles. If we want one driver per vehicle, then this reduces the number.”

He, however, observed that the most effective solution to the Covid-19 pandemic is to get a vaccine.

“I have been discussing with our scientists and they are sure a vaccine can be developed. That’s the real answer, but that may take some months. Therefore, in the short run, prevention is the only way,” Museveni said.

Uganda is the major route of transit trucks destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, which depend on Kenya's Mombasa port from their imports and Mwanza in Tanzania.

Contributed by Ahmed Wetaka, Kampala-Uganda