‘Speaker, deputy not isolating over Covid’

Parliament Speaker Anita Among and Deputy Thomas Tayebwa, who met President Museveni when unmasked and shook hands with him a day before he tested positive for Covid-19, will not go into self-isolation.

Mr Chris Obore, the Parliament spokesperson, said the duo posed no risk as they had tested negative for the virus ahead of the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address (Sona) at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala on Wednesday.

“The President met the Speaker and Deputy Speaker before the State-of-the-Nation Address. They tested negative as it was a requirement for attending Sona. People only go into isolation when they test positive for Covid-19,” he said.

The explanation, however, flies in the face of the science of the pandemic and long-standing guidance by experts summed in Standard Operation Procedures (SoPs) that individuals exposed to infected persons isolate until lapse of the gestation period. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has since downgraded Covid-19 as no longer a public health emergency of global concern, coronavirus takes a week to a fortnight before an infected person develops symptoms.

However, asymptomatic individuals can infect others without knowing their status.   
The UN health watchdog notes that downgrading the status of Covid-19 does not mean the disease is over and caution should remain in place where infections are ongoing. 

Previously, individuals exposed to infected persons, also known as “contacts” in epidemiological parlance, were mandatorily quarantined, but self-isolation is now encouraged ever since the declaration that Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency of global concern.

Mr Museveni met Ms Among and Mr Tayebwa at the State House on Tuesday, the same day he met the United States Ambassador to Uganda, Ms Natalie Brown and Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations.

During Sona a day later, Mr Museveni said rapid Covid tests from samples taken from him after he experienced mild flu-like symptoms tested negative, but CPR test results were conflicting – one negative, the other positive.

By Wednesday evening, Health ministry Permanent Secretary Diana Atwine, who is also the President’s personal physician, tweeted that another CPR test confirmed Mr Museveni was Covid-positive.

“I have, therefore, self-isolated at Nakasero [State Lodge in Kampala],” the President tweeted yesterday, adding that the disease had imposed on him his only second leave in 53 years.

News of the President’s positive Covid test and subsequent decision to go into self-isolation out of an abundance of caution would mean Parliament, which can only sit with either the Speaker or Deputy in chair, would have suspended plenary had Ms Among and Mr Tayebwa taken a cue from him.

Mr Obore said there was no risk posed by the duo to either lawmakers, House staff or the public because their results from tests done ahead of Sona on Wednesday turned negative for Covid.
Nonetheless, some legislators, among them Mr Gilbert Olanya, who represents Kilak South, suggested that the Parliament shuts business for at least a fortnight. 

“For two weeks all MPs who attended the Sona should be isolated, including the Speaker,” he said.

President Museveni is a very watchful person on matters health, often pictured in in-person meetings including of his colleague heads of state, as the lone masked leader, raising questions on where he caught the virus.

In yesterday’s tweet, he disclosed that he has lately relaxed masking due to a recurring allergic reaction which he said during the campaigns for the 2021 elections caused him to lose voice.