The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has cautioned residents of Kamuli district against relaxing on the public health preventive measures of controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, saying they are taking a matter of life and death lightly.
Kadaga who was launching the distribution of about 44,700 government face masks in the district over the weekend, said she had observed people within business centres operating without masks, devoid of social distancing and hand washing facilities.
“As I was driving, I observed that people have abandoned public hygiene, people are no longer washing hands, if you go to Kikuubo life is normal, no wearing masks, no social distancing, no hand washing and it is clear there are no sanitisers” Kadaga said.
Kadaga was equally disturbed on finding out that the locals are no longer adhering to the presidential directives on conducting public gatherings. “When the lock down had started, a few people would attend funerals and for a short time but now people attend funerals in serious numbers and for hours” Kadaga said.
She castigated the district task force for failing to involve the local council especially the village chairpersons, saying they would have helped in adherence to Covid-19 prevention measures at grass root level.
“The local councils are not involved in this programme despite having a district task force. I do not see why people have abandoned hand washing and social distancing. I want to see the local council visible” Kadaga said.
She urged the task force to involve the village chairpersons in the mask distribution exercise as a way of popularising the message behind wearing masks.
“I am told that in some villages when you go with a mask, you are the odd man out. We need to make them understand that it is a matter of life and death; let us use the local council to popularise this,” said Kadaga.
The acting District Health Officer, Dr Fred Duku, The acting District Health Officer, Dr. Fred Duku called on the Speaker to support the district in mobilising funds for running Covid-19 activities.
Duku said the district had secured an isolation unit at Kamuli hospital adding that, ‘there was no vehicle to transport health workers and the unit lacked essential commodities such as personal protective equipment for health workers and infection control commodities’.
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