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Lamwo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lamwo district COVID-19 taskforce has resolved to ban long-distance truck drivers from making stopovers in the area as one of the measures to control the spread of coronavirus disease.
This restrictive measure comes in the wake of an increase in infections among long-distance truck drivers, most of them Kenyan and Tanzanian nationals crossing through Uganda to South Sudan. On Thursday, 11 truck drivers tested positive to the virus driving bringing the number of COVID-19 cases to 74. Another driver tested positive yesterday.
The decision also follows concerns raised by sub county chairpersons at the border about the number of truck drivers who make stopovers at major trading centres buying items and freely mixing with the population. Lamwo district is transit route to South Sudan with four official designated border points at Apiriti in Madi Opei sub county, Aweno-Olwiyo and Ngomoromo in Lokung sub county and Waligo in Palabek Kal sub county.
“Local community members always come into contact with the transiting cargo truck drivers who have been stopping in trading centres to have a rest and buy food or refreshments,” Charles Okwera Obong, the Madi Opei sub county chairperson says.
Lokung sub county chairperson Joachim Ocan Opoka says that due to the lack of any designated locations for the cargo trucks in the district, authorities should not tolerate tendencies by truck drivers of making a stop at the district since their uncertain of their status.
Padibe town council chairperson Solomon Ochola Olii says that whereas the government has instituted all the necessary precautionary measures for screening and testing truck drivers at the border checkpoints, this is not a guarantee that the truckers are totally safe.
Ochola also wants the government to rescind its proposal of permitting cargo truck drivers to continue transporting the much needed cargo goods during this lockdown following the unprecedented COVID-19 public health crisis.
The Lamwo Resident District Commissioner James Nabinson Kidega who also chairs the district COVID-19 taskforce now says trucks on transit with goods to South Sudan will only be allowed to proceed with their journey without stopping in the district.
Kidega says as part of surveillance, the taskforce has also designed a tracking mechanism to help follow up cargo trucks that make an entry from South Sudan and warns that any truck that will be found parking any how they will be impounded.
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