The government has reported 158 new Covid-19 cases between March 1 and March 10, which is 98 percent lower than 10,083 cases reported between January 1 and January 10 of this year.
The big decline comes more than two months after the economy was fully reopened amid threats from President Museveni on December 31, 2021, that some of the restrictions would be reinstated if Covid-19 patients overwhelmed health facilities. 
The decline in cases has also been reflected in hospitalisation and deaths which have significantly declined, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

The positivity rate also declined from 21.6 percent on January 1 and it’s now at the average of 0.4 percent, according to the ministry’s figures. Positivity rate below 5 percent, according to the ministry, indicates that the pandemic is under control. 
Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the director of public health services at the ministry, in an interview, warned people against dropping masks and hand washing, saying another wave of Covid-19 is coming.
“We are preparing for the next wave. When we told people we were going to experience a third wave, they thought it was a political statement and the third wave came,” he said.

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“Dropping the standard operating procedures (SOPs) is because of risk perception –somebody knowing that things are not okay. Now people are hearing that the number of Covid cases is low and so they are becoming complacent and this is taking us backward. People are no longer hand washing. We used to go everywhere and you were asked to wash hands and sanitise,” he added.
Prof Samuel Majalija, a microbiologist at Makerere University, told this newspaper the notable decline doesn’t mean the pandemic is ending.

“Over the next few years, we are still going to see coronavirus variants that cause severe disease coming up and then they will go down. This will continue until the virus and human body strikes a balance and they coexist over the years. It will become like normal flu,” he said.
Dr Kyabayinze appealed to Ugandans to embrace Covid-19 vaccination for effective control of the pandemic and guarantee the recovery of the economy.
Vaccination status
The country has so far received 42 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, the majority of which were acquired through donations. A total of 17 million doses have been used to vaccinate 66 percent of the 22 million targeted people, with at least one dose while 37 percent are fully vaccinated.

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