Ugandans Anxiously Wait Presidential Address On COVID-19 As Experts Recommend Extention

As tiredUgandans await their unknown fate with the lockdown, Cabinet is seating on Monday and decide on whether to extend the already prolonged lockdown or reopen to normal business.

The current lockdown that was imposed on ends on Tuesday the  5^th of May 2020.

However, in the light of a proposal from the national COVID-19 taskforce, the lockdown could be moved a little longer depending on the outcome from the cabinet meeting today.

The President will address the nation tonight at 8 pm on COVID-19 and the lockdown.

The National COVID-19 Taskforce led by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, Health experts, Security officials represented by the Deputy CDF Wilson Mbadi and IGP Okoth Ochola met the President Sunday morning at State House Entebbe and reportedly suggested an extension of 3 more weeks.

Their argument was based on the two cases that re-emerged from local communities in Masindi and Mutukula during a rapid testing survey by the Ministry of Health to assess the COVID-19 prevalence among locals in Uganda.

A Police Constable who is also a detective tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday during the Ministry of health’s rapid testing survey.

The survey that was flagged-off last week will transverse vulnerable communities taking blood and nasal samples from over 20.000 people and this would decide how to handle the lockdown.

Museveni reportedly who decided to take the proposal to cabinet told the meeting that if it were up to him, he would partially open the economy since Ugandans need to go back to work.

The Ministry of Health has said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Uganda has risen to 89 after one sample tested positive on Sunday, the case is a 39-year-old Kenyan male truck driver who arrived via Malaba border post.

The case is part of  2,729 samples of truck drivers tested on Sunday.

Also, 201 community samples tested on the same day returned negative for COVID-19.

A community case confirmed on Saturday, May 2, from Rakai District is at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital while his family members are under quarantine.

Pamela Achom