Stay home, Museveni tells Ugandans
President Museveni joins religious leaders and government officials at State House Entebbe during national prayers on Saturday. PHOTO BY PPU
President Museveni yesterday advised Ugandans who do not have their own means of transport to stay home and avoid using public transport as a measure to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The President also warned owners of buses and other public service vehicles not to allow any person with flu and cough on board.
He directed the Ministry of Health to arrange for stationing of temperature monitors at different disembarking and embarking points.
“The only remaining danger is public transport because it is where you get people who are sitting together in a bus, or a mini bus or taxi. This is the one I am still struggling within my head how to handle,” the President said in a televised address.
“Therefore, for now, I appeal to you if you don’t have your own public transport, car, motorcycle, your own bicycle don’t use this public transport, stay at home?” he said.
Mr Museveni also announced deployment of security forces at all Uganda’s borders which closed effective yesterday at midnight.
The President announced the closure of all borders and ban of all passenger flights in and out of the country on Saturday evening after the country confirmed the first case of coronavirus.
“We said we shall not allow in people to come in by either walking or cycling. All those will not be allowed through gazetted centres and even the hidden ones we are going to deploy forces in all those places both gazetted and ungazetted,” Mr Museveni said.
“It is better to save the base which is Uganda with 42 million people who are here. Yes, there are Ugandans who are outside but like when we were fighting the war [guerrilla war] if the camp was attacked, the first priority was to defeat the attack on the camp,” he added.
Mr Museveni said security forces would be deployed at all formal and informal entry points to stop people from entering the country as part of the additional preventive measures against coronavirus.
The President said following the uncoordinated nature of the people from the hard-hit countries, all passengers getting in and out of the country regardless of the means of transport have been blocked.
The Health minister, Dr Ruth Aceng, yesterday said the confirmed case of coronavirus was that of a 36-year-old man, a resident of Kibuli, Kakungulu zone in Kampala, who had travelled to Dubai on March 17 for a business trip.
President Museveni said there is a strong likelihood the confirmed case contracted the disease from Dubai, but added that his family members were checked, and no one was complaining of any sickness.
However, he also cautioned that a possibility that the infected man acquired the disease from Uganda has not been ruled out.
Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), said it is possible for someone to have the virus within four days and tests positive but there is a possibility that the may also test negative within that period.
“Yes it is possible and it is also possible to test positive in four days, you can be positive, you can be negative. That’s why it’s a range. If you tested negative four days, it is not enough because maybe the virus has not reached the peak,” Prof Kaleebu said. As part of the preventive measures, last week the President suspended public meetings, gatherings, open prayers and ordered closure of schools, churches, mosques and bars for 32 days.
Mr Museveni yesterday told students to stay home and stop loitering trading centres.
Dr Aceng said during the screening process at the airport, the infected man’s temperature was 38.7 and this prompted the health teams to isolate him for further follow-up.
Subsequent temperatures taken at intervals of 30 minutes and one hour remained the same. He was evacuated to Entebbe Grade B Hospital for further follow up where a nasal swab was taken for analysis.
“The confirmed case presented with high fever and poor appetite. He is not coughing neither did he have flu.
However, the persistent fever prompted the health workers to isolate him. His nasal swab samples were sent to Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) for analysis. Results from UVRI showed the sample is positive for COVID-19,” Dr Aceng said.
She said at the time of his travel to Dubai, he was in good health. She however said to date, a total of 1,827 travellers, including Ugandans and others travelling back home from high-risk countries have been identified for purposes of follow up.
About 827 are completing self-quarantine while about 1,000 are under quarantine.
“When we tried to quarantine them, some escaped and they were giving hard times to our health workers,” she said.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Health permanent secretary, said they allowed other passengers on the same flight with the infected man to leave because they could not hold everyone at the airport as the place would be too congested.
“We tried to move as many from the airport as quickly, so this person had to be tested from aside. By the time we completed testing him, other people had already moved, but most of the passengers were not coming from highly affected countries,” she said. Dr Atwine said everyone would be subjected to institutional quarantine.
