Africa-Press – Uganda. The Minister of Works and Transport, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, has urged the Ministry of Health to consider airport staff first as they start the vaccination exercise against the deadly Covid-19.
“Frontline workers here at the airport should be among the first people to receive the vaccination against Covid-19 because they are highly exposed. People move in and out and this disease is transmitted by movement of people so I have already interacted with the minister of health who has actually agreed that these are among the frontline workers who are prioritised in terms of vaccination,” he said during the inspection visit to the Entebbe International Airport on Friday.
On the issue of the government project to expand the Airport, Gen Katumba said they are almost done with phase one, and plans to embark on phase two are underway.
“The whole exercise requires 325 million dollars (Shs1.2 trillion). Phase one took $200 million (Shs731 billion) and 90 percent of it is complete, now we are going back to parliament to account for the 200 million dollars (Shs731 billion) to show the progress which has been achieved and then ask for $125 million (Shs457 billion) for phase two. We need to do this quickly so that the contractor does not charge us for idle equipment,” he said.The Director Airports and Aviation Security, Eng Ayub Sooma, highlighted coordination difficulties to integrate different Airfield works with no alternative runway to ease pressure on the rehabilitation of main runways and taxiways, as the main challenge affecting their work.
The Chairman Board of Directors UCAA Hon Justice Stephen Kavuma said that Covid-19 impacted in terms of passenger traffic statistics, thus affecting the revenues.
“Entebbe international Airport handled 1,980,000 international passengers in 2019 compared to 565,541 passengers in 2020. Even after the resumption of passenger flights, the situation is yet to stabilize,” he said.
