President Museveni is expected to order for a lockdown of Kampala Metropolitan Area for a period of two weeks to help combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the Nile Post has exclusively learnt.
The president is set to address country tonight giving an update on the Covid-19 situation and offer more guidelines on what to do to stem the spread.
This website has however exclusively learnt that a select COVID19 team has handed over a report to Museveni on what they think should be done to combat the spread of the deadly pandemic.
“The president was advised to order for the total lockdown of Kampala Metropolitan districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono for 14 days to limit movement among the population that would in turn help reduce the spread of coronavirus,” a source privy to the report told the Nile Post.
The World Health Organisation in its situation report predicted that going by the current trend, Uganda will by April 15 have 1051 confirmed coronavirus cases and therefore, in a bid to curb this, there is need to control movement of people.
“It is only wise to lock down now so as to control the spread of the pandemic. This measure will be taken for 14 days but could be extended basing on the situation on the ground.”
The total lockdown will however be implemented in only Kampala Metropolitan area so as to avoid the spread of the deadly pandemic to upcountry areas which could prove difficult to combat especially in remote areas.
This will mean that no one will be allowed to move from one of those districts to the other but also, members of the public will not be allowed to go to the city centre for work as has been the norm.
In simple terms will only be allowed to move to nearby areas to buy essential items like food stuffs and medicine among other key stuff for use during this period.
Curfew
According to the source, the president might also order for a curfew that no one will be allowed to move at night to help fight criminality.
There have been cases of criminality in various parts of the country since the president issued guidelines on combating the spread of coronavirus.
For example, in Tororo, there was an incident in which thugs broke into a residence, killed a security guard and then stole a 50kg bag of rice that had been stocked to take the family through the partial coronavirus lockdown.
However, despite the deployment of police, army and non- uniform intelligence operatives, the curfew will further help on reduction of crime.
According to the select committee report, since the ban on public transport means, many groups of people are seen moving together to and from the city centre which could increase chances of spreading coronavirus.
Therefore, by banning all movement, this will help reduce of the people in the city centre.
Ban on private transport
When the president banned all public transport means for 14 days, he on the other side allowed private transport means with cars not allowed to carry more than three people, the drivers inclusive.
However, Museveni is expected to ban private means in his address to night.
Exempted
Museveni’s new guidelines will however allow all media outlets (both print and electronic), all health facilities, telecommunication service providers, door to door delivery services, financial institutions, property management services, private security companies, cleaning services, firefighting, fuel station and garbage collecting companies.
Factories
Whereas factories are expected to remain operating, workers will be allowed to work in shifts to avoid congestion whereas they will also be required to follow the Health Ministry guidelines.
On Sunday night, the Health Ministry announced that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Uganda are 33.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, government has put in place several measures aimed at combating the spread of coronavirus.
Government started by banning all cultural, social, political and any form of gatherings that saw a schools ,universities, churches, mosques and any other place that brings a big number of people together closed.
The guidelines have also seen public transport suspended for two weeks.
“It is wise that we temporary remove these concentration points to prevent the spread of coronavirus. All these institutions, without exception should close so that we deny this virus high concentration. We don’t want the virus to find dry grass ready for ignition,” the president said.
He explained that it is in the interest of the citizens’ health that they avoid gatherings which would be a fertile ground for the coronavirus to spread.
