By Merjeed M Anguiza
President Yoweri Museveni has revealed he’s strongly contemplating ending the ban on car movement and urged Ugandans to continue wearing masks as the country continues the gradual lifting of the lockdown.
Car movement has been limited for over a month as Uganda continues to work towards stopping the spread of COVID-19 global pandemic.
“We have avoided situations like for those abroad because we used maximum restrictions. We must now slowly open but continue to avoid the virus through using masks, continue to treat as long as the numbers are not many and at the same time still look for the vaccine.
We may soon resume public transport, but this will only work if we have masks on. If we fail to wear masks, we will have massive infections,” he said.
The President was speaking during the second National Day of Prayer against COVID19, which he hosted together with the First Lady and Minister for Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataha Museveni at State House Entebbe.
The service was led by His Grace Archbishop Dr. Lwanga Cyprian of Kampala diocese under the theme ‘God’s power is complete’ derived from Psalm 46: 10 and and Quran 645:12. The first national prayers were held in March 2020.
The President who quoted Genesis 1: 26-28, noted that man was given dominion over nature and so in such times, man should dominate by avoiding a virus, treating it and getting a vaccine for it,” he said.
On the issue of the increasing cases of infected truck drivers from bordering countries, President Museveni noted that the movement of cargo would not be stopped, but he assured the country that he had talked with the other Heads of States of other East African countries and the matter would be dealt with.
“Many of you were saying that we should stop them, but if we stopped the trucks, how will the country survive? We are in talks with President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania and we are discussing this. We want the drivers to be tested by joint teams of the four countries. We don’t want them to be tested at the borders now, we want them to be tested from their origin,” he said.
He also noted that because of the ‘Covid19 shake-up’ people must ensure that Ugandans who drive must all be healthy.
This was because most of the drivers that had been checked were found with diseases like diabetes, which would also partly explain why there were many accidents on the road.
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