{"id":17684,"date":"2021-09-15T16:32:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T16:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=17684"},"modified":"2021-09-15T15:12:44","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:12:44","slug":"task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing","title":{"rendered":"Task force sets terms for compulsory Covid testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The National Covid-19 Task Force has directed that gaps in Covid-19 testing at the designated centres should be urgently addressed to pave way for the implementation of mandatory testing.<\/p>\n

Government had planned to start implementing mandatory testing for all travellers arriving in the country on September 3 but it was postponed for two weeks, a day before, by an inter-ministerial team led by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja.<\/p>\n

Touring Entebbe International Airport on Sunday with other government officials on the National Task Force, Ms Nabbanja said there were key gaps that must be filled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have come up with suggestions that the inefficiencies that we saw in the place of testing should be addressed as quickly as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also recommending that some time to come, all passengers will be tested from here but that is a long term plan because we still have this place, is almost 75 percent complete\u2026as government we shall look for money and complete this facility so that testing and everything will be done here,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Dr Charles Ayume, the head of Parliament\u2019s health committee, while touring the testing centres in Entebbe nine days ago, said the turnaround time should be halved to avoid irritating travellers and tourists. \u201cWe welcome this [directive of mandatory testing]. But of course there are a number of issues like any new facility. Try to bring the turnaround time to two hours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currently, travellers spend about four hours to get their results.<\/p>\n

The Covid-19 testing facility is at Penial Beach Hotel in Entebbe and six laboratories are testing travellers.<\/p>\n

The laboratories include Test and Fly, Case Hospital, Medipal, Safari Lab, Same Day Lab and City Medical lab.<\/p>\n

Travellers are charged $65 (about Shs229,439) to do test but some legislators want the cost reduced to $40 (about Shs141,194).<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister was also concerned about enforcement of Covid-19 prevention measures at the testing facilities as reports indicate that some workers and travellers do not use facemasks.<\/p>\n

Dr Chis Byaromunsi, the Information minister, said they are testing travellers from 10 high-risk countries which include Kenya, Ethiopia, and India.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecision has to be made on whether to maintain that or we test all those who come into the country. We were also assessing the suitability of the airport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Nabbanja said they have instituted a technical committee to assess the gaps and also benchmark what is happening in other countries to better services in Uganda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agreed that we give them two days [to present their report],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Health spokesperson, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, yesterday said a final position would be communicated before the end of this Friday.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. The National Covid-19 Task Force has directed that gaps in Covid-19 testing at the designated centres should be urgently addressed to pave way for the implementation of mandatory testing. Government had planned to start implementing mandatory testing for all travellers arriving in the country on September 3 but it was postponed for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-17684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nTask force sets terms for compulsory Covid testing - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Covid-19 Task Force has directed that gaps in Covid-19 testing at the designated centres should be urgently ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Task force sets terms for compulsory Covid testing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Covid-19 Task Force has directed that gaps in Covid-19 testing at the designated centres should be urgently ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-15T16:32:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/09\/img-61420d596a0ca.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Task force sets terms for compulsory Covid testing\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-15T16:32:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/09\/img-61420d596a0ca.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/task-force-sets-terms-for-compulsory-covid-testing\",\"name\":\"Task force sets terms for compulsory Covid testing - 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