Government to decide cargo drivers’ fate
Cargo trucks make their way into Uganda through the Malaba border post. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- The Ministry of Health said Friday that 11 more cargo truck drivers had tested positive, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 74
The fate of truck drivers bringing cargo into the country will be decided today (Friday) after the Ministry of Works and Transport meets stakeholders.
Gen Katumba Wamala, the Minister of Works and Transport, on Wednesday said the ministry and other stakeholders will agree on a common position on how to handle the cargo truck drivers, especially those from neighbouring countries, who so far are the remaining biggest challenge for the country in curbing spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There are measures, some of them possibly very expensive and may be not very elaborate and those are some of the things we are going to investigate on Friday and come up with something practical, something within the means without injuring the economy,” Gen Wamala said in a telephone yesterday.
Currently, most of the recent confirmed cases have been truck drivers from Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the senior public relations officer in the Ministry of Health said standard operating procedures have been put in place as a control measure against Covid-19 with designated areas put along travel corridors for check-up.
READ:
COVID-19 cases jump to 74 as 11 truck drivers test positive
Dr Mwebesa said that the 11 COVID-19 positive cases were from 1,020 samples tested from truck drivers at border points of entry.
“We have also designated areas along the travel corridors where they have only to stop…, and get checked again by health officials, security officials and Uganda Revenue Authority officials until their final destination, that process is being handled very well,” Mr Ainebyoona said on Wednesday.
Ministry of Health said URA has a technology to locate each truck in transit but has appealed to people working near the stopping points not to get in contact with truck drivers.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said Friday that 11 more cargo truck drivers had tested positive, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 74.
The new 11 positive cases that were registered on Thursday include; six Tanzanian truck drivers who arrived via Mutukula Border post and five Kenyan truck drivers.
