Lockdown to stay in districts with Covid-19 cases

Restrictions in districts under lockdown will not be lifted until there are no Covid-19 cases registered in the area, a senior presidential adviser has said.

Dr Monica Musenero, an epidemiologist, said lifting the lockdown will depend on the epidemiological picture, adding that the districts are reviewed on a weekly basis.

Epidemiology is a branch of medicine that deals with incidence, distribution, and control of diseases.
“Once there are no more cases in an area, the lockdown is lifted. This slows spread without needing nationwide lockdowns,” Dr Musenero said in an interview on Tuesday.

Although President Museveni ordered reopening of some border districts, restrictions were maintained in others with evidence of community clusters and high-risk characteristics.

The districts included Rakai, Kyotera, Amuru, Buikwe ,Gulu, Arua, Adjumani, Moyo, Nebi, Zombo, Arua, Busia and Bulisa, among others.

Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general health services at the Ministry of Health, said all the other districts are still under lockdown, except Gulu whose contacts were discharged.

“We release each one at a time depending on the scenario. We look at the community cases, their contacts, especially those people who are in isolation,” Dr Mwebesa said.

Green light
“Like in Gulu, we have monitored all the contacts of all those who were admitted, the community cases not truck drivers, and once all their contacts are discharged from quarantine centres without any positive case, then we are happy with the district and we release,” he added.

The Ministry of Health said as long as the cases are coming out of a community area, then it is followed closely and monitored as community cases are more worrying than the truck drivers.

“The community cases have been in the community, they have been interacting with the people they have contacts, the contacts also have contacts, you don’t know who also they were in contact with, so those ones create a lot of work for us,” Dr Mwebesa said.

Mr Don Wanyama, the senior presidential spokesperson, said the lifting of the lockdown in those districts will depend on the advice of the experts and reviews of the scientists.

“It will be on the advice of experts. There will be some periodic reviews but on the advice of the scientists. There is a national taskforce on Covid-19, so whenever they meet, they review all those directives and advise the President ,” Mr Wanyama said.

The country has registered at least 893 Covid-19 cases with 837 recoveries.

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