Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has for the second time extended the nationwide lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In his televised national address on Monday evening, Museveni announced a 14-day extension following the expiry of the 21-day lockdown. The first lockdown ran for two weeks.
The president, however, allowed selected businesses to resume operations and made it compulsory for all people leaving their homes to wear masks.
The businesses allowed to resume operations include hardware shops, mechanic workshops and garages, metal and wood workshops, insurance companies, and restaurants among others.
However, restaurants have been restricted to serving takeaways.
“They should serve takeaways. Let people come and buy food and go away. We shall not allow them to sit and eat from there,” the president said.
He also noted that they had debated the issue of public and private transport and realized it wasn’t time to free them.
“We have not yet thought it wise to allow public or private transport. People should use buses, either owned or hired by the employers, cycling to the workplace which is the healthiest and also walking to the factory and walking back,” he said.
The head of state also noted that it was still very dangerous to reopen schools especially due to congestions in dormitories, affirming that allowing 15 children to resume school would dangerous since they would need to use public transport to return to their respective schools.
“You saw the mess when we called for the reopening of schools. There was heavy traffic for two days,” the head of state said. “Let the children stay at home, I’m more comfortable with them than going to school in this situation. Even if they miss a term or year, it’s better than to hear that they have a problem because of being too impatient.”
The head of state said all the remaining measures announced earlier on are still in place.
8 new COVID-19 cases during the lockdown
His address coincided with the announcement of eight new covid19 cases, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 97.
Six of the eight cases according to the Health Ministry are truck drivers. The remaining two were picked from the community during the rapid assessment survey launched by the Ministry to determine the extent of community transmission of the viral respiratory disease.
One of the community members was picked from Kyotera district, which borders Tanzania while the other is a Ugandan truck driver also from Mutukula in the same district. The other five are Kenyan truck drivers whose samples were picked from the Malaba border and one from a Tanzanian truck driver at Mutukula border. A total of 2246 samples were tested on Monday.
Contributed by Ahmed Wetaka, Kampala-Uganda
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