Africa-Press – Uganda. With 60 passengers on board, a Baasa Transport Company (BTC) bus sets off from Namayiba Bus Park in Kampala for a 445-kilometre journey to Adjumani Town. On the bus, only about 12 passengers cared to wear their face masks of which most had them below the chin.There was no hand sanitising as passengers rushed to secure seats for the seven-hour journey.
Following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country in March last year, government instituted a lockdown in a bid to curb its spread.It slowly started lifting the ban to lessen the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and on June 4, 2020, the government allowed public transport to resume but with some restrictions.Bus and taxi operators were asked to carry half their capacity in a bid to encourage social distancing. The full capacity of a bus is 72 passengers and that of a taxi is 14.
Bus and taxi operators were also instructed to ensure that their passengers wore facemasks and sanitised their hands before entering the vehicles.However, when asked about the deliberate violation of the standard operating procedures put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic, an official from BTC, who only identified himself as Musuzi, said they need more money. “The fuel price has increased and we cannot leave a passenger who wants to travel. We need money,” Mr Musuzi said.
He added: “Some passengers come with less money, so they request us to add another person near them to cover for what they did not pay. And when we do it [to help the passenger], the social distancing cannot be observed.”During the interview, Mr Musuzi kept his facemask in his pocket despite being in a crowded place.However, a passenger on the bus told this reporter that he paid Shs40,000. This is higher than the Shs25, 000 that people were paying before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Three weeks ago, this reporter, while travelling from Lira to Kampala on YY bus, also witnessed a similar problem.Although the transport fare remained high at Shs40,000 which is higher than pre-Covid-19 fare of Shs20,000, more than 55 passengers were allowed on the bus. Mr Ibrahim Abdallah, the general supervisor of YY Bus Company, said they make sure that the buses only carry the recommended 33 passengers, but admitted that some conductors may violate the rule and add more passengers along the way.“We always provide sanitisers and ask passengers to wear facemasks. Only that some passengers do not want to adhere to some of these measures,” he said.
The situation on a Kampala Hopper bus was not any different. There were about 55 passengers on the bus, which is 22 passengers higher than the limit, and many of them were not wearing face masks. Mr Brian Okii, a security guard who used the bus, told this reporter that observing Covid-19 prevention measures is for people with weak immunity.“I have strong immunity against Covid, so I can’t be that worried. And cases [of infections] are very low in the country,” he said.
He was not wearing a facemask.However, government statistics for May 1 to May 16 show that there was a 30 per cent increase in Covid-19 cases, compared to between April 15 and April 30.On May 23 alone, the government reported 155 cases of infections, which was higher than the average of 30 cases that were being reported per day in MarchThe May 23 report also indicated that the number of hospital admissions for Covid-19 significantly increased from an average of 28 patients in March to 140 people in May.
At the New Taxi Park and Namayiba Taxi Park, observance of social distancing limit (eight passengers per vehicle) was adhered to by taxis leaving the park. But more than 70 per cent of the passengers were either not wearing facemasks or had them below the chin and there was no hand sanitising.
There has also been a violation of the 9pm-6am curfew that was put in place to prevent the spread of the virus, especially among boda-boda cyclists.Dr Nathan Onyaci, the director of Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, said as government struggles to enforce SOPs and sensitise people, it is important to vaccinate more people to curb transmission because behaviour change takes time.“I was in church recently and I was the only one wearing a mask,” he said.
Govt reactsMs Joy Kabatsi, the outgoingState minister for Transport, said they will take immediate action to prevent further increases in infections that may cause another total lockdown. “We are going to call the committee of the parks and the transport operators for a meeting to sort out the issue. I know some people have been taking advantage of the period of swearing-in because we were not paying much attention to other things,” she said.
Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said they are tightening enforcement to ensure transporters respect Covid-19 prevention measures.“We are doing strategic enforcement, especially in hotspots and transporters who are not following the loading capacity,” Mr Enanga said.The police spokesman, however, said they faced strong opposition from some people last year when they tried to increase enforcement of the SOPs.
