Africa-Press – Uganda. COVID-19|HEALTH|BANK OF UGANDA
KAMPALA – Bank of Uganda (BoU) is one of the Government Institutions that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 and as of December 8, 2020, 40 of its staff had tested positive for the virus. The bank also announced it would send condolence messages to the bereaved family where its staff had died as a result of covid-19 instead of representatives to minimize the risk of staff getting infected with covid-19,”Members of staff shall be allowed to follow the burial proceedings using alive stream link,” the bank indicated.John Chemonges, the Chairman BoU Covid-19 Response Team in a memo to staff warned that the Covid-19 situation has reached an intensive level of community transmission and that they had reached several resolutions to protect their staff.Some of the resolutions include strengthening adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).”Incident sector managers and peer educators should be assigned an extra responsibility of reminding members of staff to observe SOPs and ensure that Covid-19 publicity materials are put at different places within the bank.”The bank also suspended all workshops. “They shall only be allowed to take place under exceptional circumstances which shall be approved by the Deputy Governor. Some of the exceptional circumstances shall include having limited number of participants and that the activity cannot be completed online.”The bank also resolved to scale down the percentage of staff who shall work on site from 70% to about 50% due to the increase in Covid-19 infections within the bank. “The said members of staff shall work on-site from December 14-January 15 2021. Any department that needs more than 50% shall justify the requirement for exceptional approval of the Executive Director Administration.The bank also resolved that “posters on covid-19 symptoms shall be printed and put in places where they can easily be seen by members of staff. Such places shall include, dining areas, notice boards access and exit points among others.”The bank would also organize online awareness sessions by medical department weekly during December 2020. Staff was also reminded to avoid overcrowding in shared places like the dining halls. “After meals, staff should immediately get out to allow room for others who may not have eaten but also limit exposure.”In the case of lift, the maximum number of passengers should only be 4 and that the Ban would continue to regularly disinfect all shared common surfaces like doorknobs, tables, chairs.Since March this year when the first covid-19 case was reported in Uganda, the country has recorded 25,730 cases and 220 deaths.
