Museveni Sustains Closure Of Airports And Borders In New Address

By Nsunjo Erica

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda on Tuesday addressed the nation and announced several measures which included opening up the economy and easing the lockdown which he announced in March.

President Museveni extended the curfew to start at 9 pm and end at 5:30 am. In his March lockdown measures, curfew was starting at 7 pm.

The president instructed bodaboda riders to resume operations of carrying passengers from July 27, provided the riders and passengers wear face masks and helmets.

Museveni additionally said that bodaboda operators will be required to keep records of all passengers they transport to enable health workers to trace them in case a rider tested positive for COVID-19.

He said that the riders will not be allowed to operate beyond 6 pm because they were being used by criminals during the night.

Mr. Museveni also allowed salons to resume operations with the immediate effect provided they provide face shields for their staff, check the temperature of clients, observe social distancing, no air conditioning, and partitioning of parts of the salon in the cities, plus frequent handwashing.

President Museveni said that out of 170 arcades that were inspected, only 110 were found to be compliant. He said Kampala city has about 230 shopping arcades. However, only those that were compliant will be allowed to resume operations.

Uganda’s Museveni said that the arcades must have temperatures guns, ensure that traders and shoppers practice social distancing, among other measures.

The big man, however, said that Entebbe International Airport will remain closed until the COVID-19 situation in other countries improves.

President Museveni added that despite his awareness that the country is losing a lot of money in tourism due to suspension of flights, health is better than wealth, therefore, borders will also remain closed until further notice.

Mr. Museveni said that churches and other places of worship will remain closed until scientists find a suitable strategy to get them re-opened.

With schools, President Museveni said that a decision will be made before September because that’s when the third term is supposed to start.

“I do not want to declare a dead-year yet because a lot of scientists are working on the vaccine and it may come sooner than later. Let us give it a month and focus on distance learning.” Museveni said.

Uganda’s Museveni said that the government can’t ignore private schools. They met the minister and expressed their problems. Some of them have loans and the government is going to discuss and see if their loans can be taken up by UDB

Mr. Museveni said that thanks to the tough measures that were introduced, Uganda has registered small infection numbers with no deaths.  Museveni said that it seems some people are not happy with Uganda having recorded no deaths and are asking why Ugandans are not dying.

“After four months of the Enemy (COVID-19) attack, Uganda has registered 1,072 cases of the infection, 958 have been healed, with nobody dying.” President Museveni said.

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