President Museveni last night announced several measures in a bid to ease the lockdown which he announced in March, to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the measures; the president extended the curfew to start at 9pm and end at 5:30am.
He also allowed boda boda riders to start carrying passengers on July 27, provided the riders wear face masks and helmets. Their passengers, according to Mr Museveni, must wear face masks.
He said that boda boda operators will be required to keep a record of passengers they transport to enable health workers trace them in case a rider tested positive for COVID-19.
He also said that the riders will not be allowed to operate beyond 6pm because they were being used by criminals in various areas of the country.
President Museveni also allowed salons to start operating with immediate effect.
“We’re going to open the salons provided they provide face shields for their staff, check temperature of clients, observe social distancing, no air conditioning and partitioning of parts of the salon in the cities, plus hand washing,” he said.
He said that out of 170 arcades that were inspected, only 110 were found to be compliant. He said Kampala city has about 230 shopping arcades and only those that were found compliant would be opened.
He said that the arcades must have temperatures guns, ensure that traders and shoppers practice social distancing, among other measures.
He, however, said that Entebbe International Airport will remain closed until the COVID-19 situation in other countries improves.
“I know we are losing a lot of money in tourism, but health is better than wealth. Borders will also remain closed,” he said.
Mr Museveni said that churches and other places of worship will remain closed until scientists find a suitable strategy to get them re-opened.
He said that schools will remain closed as experts study the situation.
“With schools, a decision will be made before September because that’s when third term is supposed to start,” he said. “I do not want to declare a dead-year yet because a lot of scientists are working on the vaccine and it may come sooner than later. Let us give it a month and focus on distance learning,” the President said.
Mr Museveni said that because of the tough measures that were introduced, Uganda has registered small infection numbers with no deaths. He added that people who don’t take COVID-19 seriously are not only endangering themselves but they are also endangering other groups like health workers.
“After four months of enemy [COVID-19] attack, only 1,072 people have been infected and 958 have been healed, with nobody dying. It seems some people are not happy with this and are asking why Ugandans are not dying,” he said.