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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A section of Ugandans who returned into the country have called off their protest against spending more than 14 days in institutional quarantine.
The returnees had planned to stage protest until they are discharged from quarantine. Among the planned actions for the protest included packing up their bags and leaving their hotel rooms on the 14th day and wait at the reception for a maximum of four hours for their discharge certificates.
Ivan Bwowe, the lawyer and his clients are among the 221 Ugandans who returned on July 2nd from South Africa, Botswana, United Kingdom, and Ireland among others.
Bwowe says over 50 of the returnees backed the idea for a protest.
Last week, Bwowe wrote a letter dated July 8, 2020, to Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng that returnees will have no contractual obligation with the quarantine centres at the end of the 14th day.
He noted that the ministry should therefore collect samples from the returnees before the 14 days and release the results early enough so that the negative returnees are discharged from quarantine.
However, Bwowe now says the ministry of health spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona has communicated to the returnees that their nasal and throat swab samples will be collected on Friday morning and results returned next day.
“For now, we have scaled down on the activities for the protests and are on standby,” Bwowe says, “But we have told the ministry that we shall not pay for any extra day in quarantine.”
Bwowe says the returnees boarded flights to Uganda with the understanding that they would spend 14 days in quarantine.
However, at Entebbe International Airport returnees say they got a document authored by the Ministry of Health indicating that a sample would be taken on the 14th day and returned within three days after completion of the mandatory quarantine days.
Bwowe returned from Ireland and says some of the returnees will have spent more than 10 million shillings by the time they complete quarantine.
Since June 22nd, a total of 804 Ugandans and legal residents have returned from Afghanistan, India, Southern Africa, Ireland and the United Kingdom and are currently accommodated in 37 quarantine centres in Entebbe and Kampala which were gazetted by the Ministry of Health.
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