Cabinet to decide fate as experts advise Museveni to extend lockdown by 21 days

Cabinet will on Monday have the final say on easing the lockdown after experts advised President Museveni to extend the lockdown by three more weeks.

As the current 21 day lockdown winds down and is expected to end on Tuesday May, 5, experts on the national Covid-19 response team on Saturday met the president in Entebbe and discussed the way forward on easing the lockdown.

According to sources privy to the meeting, the team told Museveni that the cases in communities are still something to worry about and hence the need to extend the lockdown.

“The team cited new cases after the Rapid Assessment Survey. The team told the president that if the lockdown is lifted, it will disrupt the process of assessment but also the spread of the virus in those areas especially near the border with Tanzania. They asked for more time to study the situation,”a source said.

The meeting, however, according to the source argued that the 21 days would be extreme considering that people are no longer working and many are left with nothing to eat.

It was left to the president and the cabinet meeting set for Monday morning to decide the fate of the lockdown.

The development comes at a time when the confirmed cases have risen to 88 after three new cases were registered on Saturday.

The president said in his previous address that the decision to  ease the lockdown would  be informed by results from the ongoing mass testing targeting 20,000 people throughout the country.

Earlier, experts had asked the president to ease the lockdown in a phased manner after the number of new infections had gone down and the recoveries on the other side had gone up.

However, the issue of new infections has been made worse by truck drivers from both Kenya and Tanzania whereas the  porous border between Uganda and Tanzania has also not helped matters.

The Ministry of Health raised a red flag about the uncontrolled movement of civilians on the Uganda-Tanzania border at Mutukala, in Rakai District saying it could put Uganda at risk.

The ongoing Rapid Assessment Survey has so far reported two infections among communities in Masindi and Rakai.

President Museveni is expected to address the nation on the way forward on Monday night after meeting cabinet over the same.

Speaking during the Labour day celebrations, the president hinted at easing the lockdown but under strict measures.

“Very soon, we may require very many people to put on masks,” the president said on Friday as a hint on what could be the next phase in the fight against the deadly virus.

 

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