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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Experts at the Makerere University School of Public Health say there’s no longer need for the whole country to stay under total lockdown as a way of preventing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Uganda has not had any cases of community transmitted infection of the virus in more than two weeks.
During a virtual meeting held this morning to explore options available for African countries to transition from the COVID-19 lockdown, Dr. Geofrey Musinguzi, a research fellow in the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health said efforts by government should now be placed at the points of entry where the latest positive cases have been picked.
Uganda has just concluded the fourth week of lock down with another week to May 5 when President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said the country will be able to know the way forward on whether to eventually open up the non- food business and transport or not.
While it’s still unclear that the country will open up in a week’s time considering that the assessment survey that will inform their decisions was launched just yesterday, Musinguzi says areas such as out of Kampala that have had no single community case need not to stay under lock.
He also says the airport can be opened with strict guidelines of having an effective mask all the time and skipping a seat in respect of physical distancing.
However, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a procedure for lifting lockdowns, experts said it’s not a one size fit in all situations for countries in Africa.
In her response to researchers’ views, Prof Rhoda Wanyenze, the Chairperson of the Modelling Committee on the COVID -19 National Taskforce said they are currently challenged on what model they will use to enforce segmented lifting of lock down.
She said they are realizing that the models out there, some suggested by both WHO and other studies don’t match what is happening on ground in Uganda.
“We need to develop our own African model because even as we are going to begin lifting the lockdown, segmenting is going to be hard. We need to adopt a model that will enable us to quickly adjust once we realize we are going off truck”.
However, giving his remarks, Dr. Stefan Peterson, Associate Director, Programme Division and Chief of Health at UNICEF noted that indiscriminate lockdown with currently no community transmission is useless for Uganda. He said the country should have already started opening up low risk areas.
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