Africa-Press – Uganda. Government has started discussions to devise new measures to avert a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, with possibilities of imposing restrictions at the airport and other border points.
The move follows increasing global cases, with India breaking the world records in both infections and deaths in the past week. Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the State Minister for Primary Healthcare, yesterday told this newspaper that the ministry is finalising the measures, adding that they will inform the public by end of this week.
“We are having a meeting today (yesterday), one of the measures will be to put restrictions at the airport. We are finalising the discussions and before this weekend, they will be out,” Dr Kaducu said.
She added that other strict measures will be imposed at different border points and that a travel advisory will be issued by the Health ministry.“We will put restrictions at the airport, particularly for those travelling from India and other parts where the infections are high. We shall also put restrictions at the border points and advise Ugandans not to travel to India when the infections are still high,” she said.
Health officials, who preferred anonymity, said there will be a new approach to the pandemic.A number of countries are currently facing a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths, leaving hospitals overwhelmed.As of yesterday, India had registered at least 10,572 new Covid cases and 14 deaths, Russia registered 8,053 new cases and 392 new deaths, according to Worldometers.
Uganda had registered 22 new cases out of 1,233 samples tested, bringing the total number of cases to 41,737 by yesterday.The Ministry of Health has warned the public that the country is likely to face resurgence in the number of Covid-19 cases if the public continues to violate the stipulated standard operating procedures.
Dr Misaki Wayengera, the head of the ministerial scientific advisory committee on Covid-19, said unlike the first surge, the resurgence is heterogeneous, affecting both the young and old.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) almost six million people were infected with Covid-19 globally last week .“We have reached close to six million people being infected with Covid in one week, it took us almost six months to reach the first six million but we are reaching it in one week this week,” Dr Yonas Woldemariam, the WHO country representative, said on Monday.
More than 148 million people have been infected with the virus globally, at least three million people have succumbed to the diseases and more than 126 million have recovered according to Worldometers.
