KCCA to compel arcades to hire surveillance officers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | As government moves to relax the Covid-19 lockdown, Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) is issuing new safety guidelines for people working in the city center.

Dr. Daniel Okello, the Ag. Director Public Health and Environment at KCCA says they are already engaging owners of arcades to have a person to do surveillance on their premises by ensuring that everyone accessing the building undergoes basic tests for likely symptoms of coronavirus disease COVID -19.

Okello’s revelation came after concerns raised by Dr. Deogratious Ssekimpi, the Executive Director Uganda National Association of Community Occupational Health who during a webinar on preparation for the end of lockdown organized by the Makerere University School of Public Health noted that as places are re-opening including furniture and hardware shops that were recently allowed to work by the President, they were no guidelines for them to follow to mitigate infection.

In his presentation, Ssekimpi had noted that work places are congested especially in informal settings with clustered people of unknown risk profiles. He recommended that people come up with risk profiles irrespective of what type of workplace that should be measured against the attributes that are there in COVID.

Okello says they are preparing a generalized risk profile that every workplace in Kampala should have but also adds that they are challenged on how to implement with the reality that many positive cases of COVID-19 are asymptomatic and yet in some places like for instance Kisekka market, they are still challenged on how they are to implement.

He said they visited Kisekka to assess how prepared businesses there are in terms of how they plan to enforce things like social distancing.

The President Yoweri Museveni is expected to lift the suspension of more businesses and he addresses the nation on Tuesday at the end of additional 14 days.

However, there are fears of poor enforcement of guidelines issued for the businesses to follow.

Okello says many businesses are too complacent to implement these directives unless they are told.

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