Has State House relaxed Covid rules for meetings?

In one month, journalists and other invited guests have attended four events officiated by President Museveni without being subjected to Covid-19 PCR tests.
These include on March 23 when Mr Museveni was launching Speaker Anita Among’s Bukedea Teaching Hospital and Bukedea College of Health in Bukedea district, unveiling of the new Kampala-based Supreme Court and Court of Appeal twin buildings on April 18, Joan Kagezi Memorial Lecture at Kololo ceremonial grounds on April 25, and official opening of Nakivubo stadium in downtown Kampala the same day.

READ: Mpuuga slams statehouse over costly Covid tests before Museveni meetings 

All these functions attracted a large number of people, especially the Bukedea event, which had supporters of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in attendance.
President Museveni and First Lady have, however, maintained facemasks at many of the events.
The State House declined to comment on this change, which has seen a significant relaxation in enforcing wearing of masks by people attending events with Mr Museveni.

The deputy Presidential Press Secretary, Mr Faruk Kirunda, last week referred this newspaper to the Ministry of Health.
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the ministry’s spokesperson, said the decision not to subject attendees of President Museveni’s functions to Covid-19 tests depends on the assessment of the situation.

“As Ministry of Health, we recommend to anyone who is going to conduct a function to make a risk assessment and after that, you can apply some measures based on the situation. That is why you see others just use temperature guns, wear masks or PCR tests,” he said.
Mr Ainebyoona said it is not, therefore, surprising if the State House officials do not subject everyone who is invited to Mr Museveni’s function to a test since they assess the situation prior.

The Sunday Monitor reported on October 16, 2022, that the government had spent at least Shs1.6b on testing various groups of individuals for Covid-19 ahead of planned meetings with President Museveni in about two years.
The State House and the Office of the President would require all persons due to hold meetings with Mr Museveni to have a PCR negative test certificate and this must have been issued within 48 hours from the time the sample was collected.
The cost of testing for Covid-19 at the 26 laboratories accredited by the Health ministry ranges between Shs160,000 and Shs200,000 per test. 

On average, at least 100 people, including some of his Cabinet and State Ministers, officials from NRM Secretariat, development partners, other invited guests and journalists attend some of the President’s functions.
The Sunday Monitor further noted that an average of Shs8m was spent on testing journalists alone for each function.  Functions graced by the President and the First Lady are bound to attract at least 50 journalists. 
It added that millions had been spent on testing other people such as Members of Parliament and other invited guests at different functions.
The relaxation started with easing the wearing of masks by masses who were at the President’s function.

Mr Museveni also shunned wearing a mask all the three days he hosted his fellow Presidents and other leaders during the Non-Aligned Movement and G-77 Conferences in January.  All invited guests including journalists who attended the week-long conferences were exempted from PCR tests.

For her stringent measures in the fight against Covid-19, Uganda was praised by the Commonwealth, and the World Health Organisation (WHO)  for significantly fighting the pandemic that wreaked havoc globally.  WHO later declared Uganda as a model country in the fight against  Covid-19.