2400 Ugandans are being Hunted Down to be put Under Institutional Quarantine

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng

The Minister of Health has revealed that 2400 people are being tracked down to be put under institutional quarantine.  This group is said to have had contact with the 660 contacts that are for follow up.

The minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Acheng said this during the Presidential address to the nation on the state of the Covid-19 on April 3, 2020.

Dr. Acheng told the country that of the 48 people so far affected, nine were got at Entebe international airport and that they did not have the opportunity to interact with the public. But that thirteen of those infected had the opportunity to interact with the public.

“We also have to trace those who had contact with the 660. That is what we are going to do during the fourteen days of lockdown.”

The minister further said that 95% of those who tested positive with the Coronavirus were returnees from countries like the United Arab Emirates, USA, United Kingdom and Afghanistan.

According to health experts, if you get a case that is not on the list being traced, it means that the virus is ahead of you.

On his part the President, Yoweri Museveni, thanked Ugandans for responding positively to the order of dispersing human congestion. He commended the Police, Uganda Peoples Defence Forces and the Local Defence Units for implementing the directives.

Museveni however lashed out at the LDUs who have been accused by the public for committing atrocities including shooting people dead, caning and extortion. He called them pigs and threatened to deal with them the way he used to do during the guerrilla war that catapulted him to state power.

Those who took part in the five-year guerrilla war revealed that whoever went against the set standards would be told to dig a rectangular hole, stand in it and would be hit on the head with a hoe.

“They must stop or we shall deal with them harshly.”

Museveni also sounded a warning to the Crime Preventers for interfering with the security arrangements in place. He told them not to “self-deploy themselves” and to stop forthwith. Crime Preventers are the National Resistance Movement (NRM) cadres given military training and are placed in communities on the pretext of fighting crime. Opposition politicians have always accused the NRM, the ruling party, of using these people to intimidate political opponents and rig elections.

The President made clarifications about his earlier directives after complaints indicated that security officials were entering people’s compounds and cane them during the curfew time which starts at 7.00 pm and ends at 6.00 am.

“I told people to stay at home during curfew and this means they can be in their houses, be on their verandahs or in the compound.

 

President Yoweri Museveni  PPU Photo

“The markets that are not following the distancing directives are committing suicide and will be closed immediately.”

On the issue of misleading information being put to the public with claims of having cure to the Coronavirus, the President ordered the Minister for Information, National Guidance and IT to close those media houses immediately.

Museveni assured Ugandans that Covid-19 can easily be defeated if people keep distance from one another, and more especially keep away from those with cough and flu. He told those having cough to stay at home, self isolate and seek medical attention,  He added that people must keep washing their hands with soap and use sanitisers.  He also advised people to avoid touching their eyes, mouth and nose as they are soft places through which the Coronavirus can be acquired.

The minister of trade and industry, Amelia Kyambadde, said that her ministry has cleared eleven factories to produce sanitisers and that fourteen are on the way.

“Covid-19 has taught us that slavery of depending on foreign manufacturers must stop. We have the raw materials like sugar, electricity, maize and bananas,” said Museveni.

The President was quite right on this but probably he should have talked about the medical facilities in Uganda as well. Uganda’s health system could be among the worst in the world and this has been largely due to the fact that when the powers- that -be fall sick, or their families and cronies, they fly to the first world hospitals.

At one time, President Museveni flew his daughter to Germany to give birth. The President justified this on the pretext that he values security more than anything else.

In the post Covid-19 era, Ugandans and the other African countries should expect better health facilities, constructed and maintained to cater for the powers- that-be as well.

The Permanent Secretary (PS) Dr. Diana Atwine said that 10% of the health equipment needed in the struggle against Covid-19 will be manufactured locally.

Other anti Coronavirus measures in place include the closure of all non food-selling shops, staying at home of non essential staff, closing down of schools, places of worship, banning of public and private cars and bars as well as night clubs.

All government vehicles were handed over to the district health officer to help in the transferring of all categories of patients to health facilities. Each district put in place a Covid-19 task force to respond to the pandemic.

President Museveni asked the investors and other well-to-do Ugandans to donate brand new 4WD vehicles to enable each district have at least ten such vehicles to effectively respond to the pandemic.