President Museveni has warned that teachers who are not vaccinated will not be allowed back to class when schools reopen later this year.
The president on Sunday directed that all schools and institutions of higher learning should close for 42 days effective today, June ,7, 2021 to help control the spread of the virus.
He however noted that on reopening, all teachers should have taken their Covid jabs without fail.
“All teachers should fully get vaccinated before they are accepted in schools,”Museveni said.
Recently, Victoria University warned that any staff members who miss out on Covid vaccination risk losing their jobs.
Several members of the public later reacted by accusing the university of forcing staff members to take Covid jabs.
Former presidential candidate Joseph Kabuleta warned employers against subjecting their staff to forced Covid-19 jabs, saying it is illegal and they risk being sued.
“Once you force that injection on someone, you are committing an assault on their body.
“Everybody has a right to human dignity. If you are going to be injected, given tablets, or operated on, first, you must be educated about the effects of the same,”Kabuleta said, saying getting vaccinated should be voluntary.
Addressing the country on Sunday, President Museveni warned that there will not be shortcuts to this, since the move is aimed at protecting lives of Ugandans.
“I saw him(Kabuleta) saying employers have no right to force employees to get vaccinated. If we say for health reasons this is required and you don’t, you shall not come to work place. Yes, you have your right to boycott the vaccine but we also have right to protect ourselves,” Museveni said.
Closure of schools
The president explained that schools have become an epicenter for the virus and hence the need to close them to avoid the continued spread of the virus.
“There is an increased number of clusters of infections in schools. When the children were in villages, I didn’t hear of any infections. Now when we opened schools have become new centres of infections.”
He noted that a total of 948 cases have been reported in 43 schools in 22 districts with Kampala, Gulu, Masaka and Oyam districts constituting 61% of the reported cases in schools and higher institutions.
According to Museveni, because of the need to stop this trend, there is need to close all schools and institutions of higher learning for a period of 42 days until further notice.
“All schools that had been open should close with immediate effect. The risk of staying together is bigger than that of dispersal. The reason is to avoid concentrations.”