Senior Presidential Press Secretary Lindah Nabusayi has announced that President Yoweri Museveni will update the nation on way forward, as the national lockdown nears the end.
On 18th June, the president declared a 42-day national lockdown to halt the spread of Covid19 following a second wave of the deadly virus.
Nabusayi says the update will happen at 8 pm on Saturday, July 2021; “President Kaguta Museveni will this Saturday, July 31, 2021, starting at 8 pm address Ugandans on COVID19 and related issues, that the address will be broadcast live on all Television and Radio stations.”.
His address comes amidst calls from the public, civil society, religious leaders, and politicians to have the lockdown lifted in a phased manner.
The groups unanimously argue that the government should instead focus on procuring covid 19 vaccines to build hard immunity and release the population.
However, scientists on the presidential advisory commitee maintain that the lockdown should still stand until such a time when the vaccination of the recommended number has happened.
On Monday, Dr. Monica Musenero, the Chief Epidemiologist at the Covid-19 Taskforce says the lockdown has thus far been effective in bringing down the surging infections.
Musenero says; “The lockdown helped us to bring down numbers, you all saw the deaths, hospitals were filled to capacity, but we managed to contain that. The lockdown has helped us so much in stopping the spread,”.
Musenero says easing the lockdown now before mass vaccination will have repercussions.
Musenero explains“This is a tough time. It’s 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.
Scientists in the government have recommended vaccinating at least 21 million Ugandans to build hard immunity.
President Yoweri Museveni has been on record saying for the economy to fully open, at least 4.8 million persons must be vaccinated fully.
Uganda has so far vaccinated over 1.1 million people against the virus.
Health Minister Ruth Aceng recently said the government has finalized legal requirements for the purchase of 2 million Johnson and Johnson vaccines through the Africa Export-Import Bank and the African Union.
The Ministry of Health has also announced that the country is set to receive a donation of 586,080 doses of AstraZeneca Covid vaccines from the Norway Government under dose sharing through the Covax facility, 300,000 doses from Sinovac, China at the end of this week, and 285,600 doses under Covax in a few weeks, another of 688,800 in August.
The government is also at different stages for securing doses from Cuba, Russia, China and the U.K.
Uganda has so far received only 1.14 million doses through the Covax facility and the Indian government.
