The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
🔹11 new cases, all truck drivers.
🔹 6 from Tanzania
🔹 5 from Kenya
✳ 17,388 tests
✳ 74 confirmed cases
✳ 46 recoveries
✳ 29 active cases
✳ 0 deaths
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT & URN | President Yoweri Museveni has said ministry of health officials are discussing with neigbours Kenya and Tanzania how truck drivers can only be allowed to move into Uganda after being tested for COVID-19, and results released.
“We want to test these drivers before they come here. They should only be allowed to move when the results are release,” he said, before revealing he will give details in his next national address on Tuesday.
He said this today after 11 new truck drivers from Kenya and Tanzania were last night confirmed to be positive.
“We started at the airport and we are now shifting to land borders. Tests have shown that we have problems with the truck drivers and at this very moment, the Minister of Health is meeting line ministers of the different East African Countries to map a way forward,” he added.
President Museveni today flagged off a fleet of vehicles to help the Ministry of Health in the fight against COVID-19.
On the fleet of cars, he said the country is targeting at least 1350 cars such that every district gets about 10 cars. “My intention is that we build a crisis fleet that will be spared for times of crisis like these and I will not allow officials to misuse these cars,” he said.
Truck drivers
President Museveni said Uganda can’t afford stopping truck drivers from entering the country since it is a landlocked country.
Museveni said Uganda’s solution lays in making sure that the truck drivers that are allowed in the country are free of the virus. This comes just a few hours after Uganda registering the highest cases of coronavirus in a single day.
Last night, the Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng, tweeted that 11 truck drivers; six from Tanzania and five from Kenya had tested positive for the virus. This brought the total positive cases to 74.
Museveni said that Aceng who’s attending the East African Community ministers’ of health meeting has been given Uganda’s position to relay to the community. Part of these solutions includes deploying rapid testing at the border so that drivers know their status before entering the country.
However, even regular testing Museveni said could be considered although he was quick to add this might be problematic because of overcrowding at the border especially where drivers have to wait for their results before proceeding to their destinations. Museveni seemed to be convinced about relay driving where drivers stop at each country’s borders and a local driver continues with the journey.
He also said they are still discussing whether to allow only one person in the truck. “We don’t need a turn boy because the roads in Uganda and I hope in other countries are good. We have also got petrol stations every 15 miles. If we want one driver per vehicle, then this reduces the number,” Museveni said.
He however, noted that the ultimate solution to the problem is to get a vaccine for the virus. “I have been discussing with our scientists and they are sure a vaccine can be developed. That’s the real answer, but that may take some months. Therefore, in the short run, prevention is the only way,” Museveni said.
He thanked Ugandans for being vigilant and reporting any suspected coronavirus cases. He said with such an awaken population; the country will defeat the virus. He warned politicians to stop interfering in the efforts to defeat the virus. He singled out Acholi leaders who accosted the ambulance taking a truck driver who had tested positive to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.
“Entebbe hospital where these people are being treated is my neighbor just behind my fence but you haven’t heard me say I’m going to get the virus. We are tired of idiots; the people can be confined anywhere and the virus will not affect you. They must desist from interfering with the work of the health workers,” Museveni said.
