In the face of rapidly escalating Covid -19 cases in the country, government is considering to again clampdown on public transport, the Minister of Transport Gen. Edward Katumba, has revealed.
The Minister, on Sunday took to his personal twitter page and announced that due to failure by public transport operators to adhere to the health guidelines, government is left with no option but to consider suspending public transport again.
On Sunday, Uganda registered 66 new cases bringing the current registered infections to 1500 and 14 deaths.
Fellow Ugandans, it has come to my attention that some taxi operators and motorists are not obeying the COVID – 19 guidelines in place, Gen. Katumba announced.
He added that, with the increasing cases of community transmission, we may be forced to halt public transport.
The Minister of Health last week said Uganda had become an epicenter of the new COVID-19 wave, warning residents to be very cautious.
Likewise, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Judith Nabakooba, on the same day while addressing the Media expressed concern and said the current situation of Covid-19 in Kampala is worrying and getting out of hand.
It is unfortunate that even the Arcades that just reopened recently have started to register positive cases, she said.
Nabakooba stressed that it is of even greater concern that most of the people dying from Covid-19 their source of infection is not known making it difficult for contact tracing.
We can still however avoid this unfortunate state of affairs if we decide to obey the guidelines including seeking early medical assistance in case of any symptoms, she said.
According to figures by the Ministry of Health, the week of 28th July to 3rd August, Kampala registered 23 cases of Covid -19 and the following week of 4th August to 12th, this number doubled to 56, thus worrying government.
Nabakooba advised people in Kampala to stay at home if what is taking them to the city on a daily basis is not important, saying they can choose to do shopping from the neighborhood or conduct business via the phone and online.
Members of the public especially those in Kampala and Wakiso should understand the seriousness of the disease and take precautionary measures, the Minister warned.
The Minister further revealed that the Ministry of health has also noted a number of high risk areas with new transmissions including the districts of Masaka, Buikwe and Adjumani which are now registering many new cases.
In order to scale up the level of prevention, government is calling upon all district and regional task force committees to embrace more stakeholders in their activities, Nabakooba said.
She said security forces including the police are going to be more vigilant towards enforcing wearing of masks in pubic, social distancing and other preventive measures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned African countries against rushing to lift lockdown saying the new wave of the pandemic could be disastrous.
