President Yoweri Museveni will be addressing the nation on the status of Covid-19 on Friday 31 July, 2021, not Saturday as earlier communicated by his Senior Presidential Press Secretary Lindah Nabusayi.
This is according to Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja.
“H.E The President will address the Nation on #COVID19 this Friday July 30, 2021 at 08:00pm . In the meantime, stay calm and continue observing SOPs and other Presidential directives,”Nabbanja tweeted on Wednesday.
The address will be aired live on all Television and radio stations in Uganda.
The President’s address comes at a time when the National Covid-19 Taskforce is pushing for an extension of the lockdown.
In an Interview with NTV Uganda on Monday, with a few days left to the end of the 42-day lockdown instituted by President Museveni, the Chief Epidemiologist at the Covid-19 Taskforce, Dr. Monica Musenero said lifting coronavirus containment protocols before mass vaccination will have repercussions.
She said government aims to inoculate 22 million people, about half of the country’s population, to enable the economy to fully re-open.
“This is a tough time. Its because we are fighting a very dangerous enemy. This walk hasn’t been easy but here we are, we have achieved something together, with the lockdown in place, we have managed to bring down the cases, which were just climbing astronomically and soon we shall start to see a steady decline in death due to Covid-19,” Dr. Musenero said.
She said that as country ends the 42 days announced by the President Museveni, “we need to wait for guidance from His Excellency”.
Dr. Musenero said government has been frustrated by the difficulties in accessing
the vaccines but the praised lockdown, saying “it was in itself meant to push down numbers”.
“The lockdown helped us ro bring down numbers, you all saw the deaths, hospitals were filled to capacity, but we managed to contained that. The lockdown has helped us so much in stopping the spread,” she added.
While announcing a total lockdown on 18 July, 2021, President Museveni suspended private and public transport for 42 days to control the ravaging cases of Covid-19.
“For 42 days, there should be no movement of private cars, boda bodas or public transport across districts. Vehicles will only be allowed to move if they are carrying a sick person,” Museveni asserted.
“It has been observed that Taxis/ Boda-Bodas drop passengers at district boundaries (relay system) to be taken over by their colleagues waiting across the boundary districts which may result in further spread of the virus in communities.Additionally, it has also been observed that despite this directive, human beings walk across district boundaries. This therefore has not achieved its intended purpose.”
Museveni further noted that private vehicles and boda bodas will only be allowed to transport patients if they possess a recommendation letter from LC, RDC or a competent health facility.
Museveni also revised curfew time from 9pm- 6pm to 7pm to 5.30am.
“It is observed that some sections of the public are not adhering to the curfew hours.As such, curfew throughout the country is pulled back to 7pm to 5.30am, Boda-Bodas will only be allowed to move only up to 5pm.”
The President also suspended operations of business centres, places of worship and schools.
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