Dr. Wolfgang H Thome · @whthome
30th Mar 2020 from TwitLonger
#COVID19 #Uganda #PresidentialDirective #Curfew #MovementRestrictions
#Uganda
#COVID19
Presidential Directive:
1. Measure number one is to prohibit all people to people movement by everybody including those using their private vehicles, bodabodas, tuk-tuks, etc.
2. The second category of concentrations are the shopping malls, arcades, hardware shops, which gather alot of people to sell and buy non-food items. These are suspended for 14 days starting with the 1st of April, 2020.
3. All the non-food shops (stores) should also close. Only food stores, stores selling agricultural products, veterinary products, detergents and pharmaceuticals should remain open. The Ministry of Health should work out SOPs for those stores. Many people should not be allowed to congregate there and form lines to buy. Home deliveries should, instead, be encouraged.
4. The Super-markets should remain open but with clear SOPs that should restrict numbers that enter and leave the site at a given time and the handling of trolleys within the supermarkets. Alot of people can be infected by handling the unsterilized trolleys within the super-markets.
5. The established food markets in Kampala and the other towns should continue to be open. However, two precautions must be observed. One, the distance of four metres to the front, to the left, to the right and to the rear ─ between seller and buyer and also seller and seller must be observed in all the markets. Secondly, the sellers must not go home during the 14 days. They must arrange to stay nearby for that duration.
6. Saloons, Lodges and garages should also be shut for 14 days from the 1st of April, 2020.
7. Like the farms, we would like the factories to keep producing because that is the life-blood of the country. However, the danger is in the workers going home and coming back. It is that daily movement that must be frozen. Let the factory owners arrange for the crucial employees to camp around the factory area for the 14 days. If they cannot do that, let them suspend production for 14 days.
8. Construction sites should continue if they can be able to encamp their workers for 14 days. Otherwise, they should suspend construction for the 14 days.
9. The essential services are: the medical, veterinary, telephones, door-to-door delivery, Banks, Private Security companies, cleaning services, garbage collection, fire-brigade, petrol stations, water departments and some KCCA staff should continue to operate. URA should also not close business on account of not paying taxes in these 14 days.
10. Cargo transport by train, plane, lorry, pick-up, tuku-tukus, bodaboda and bicycle, within Uganda and between Uganda and the outside, must continue but only with minimum numbers, technically needed as follows: Cargo ─ Air-craft ─ only the crew; Lorry ─ not more than 3 persons i.e. driver, tonne-boy plus one, etc., as will be directed by the Ministry of Transport, working with the National Task Force on the Corona virus.
11. Gatherings of more than 5 persons are hereby prohibited.
12. Except for cargo planes, lorries, pick-ups and trains, starting with the 31st of March, 2020, at 1900 hours (Saa Moja ya Usiku), there will be a curfew throughout the whole of Uganda. All other movements should stop. Let people stay in-doors in their homes except for the cargo-transporters. The exemption of cargo transporters does not apply to the bodabodas, tukutukus or bicycles in the curfew hours. Those should only operate during daylight hours.
13. In order to deal with some unavoidable health issues like mothers in child birth or very sick people, permission can be sought from the RDC to use private transport to take such a person to hospital. Additionally, government vehicles that do not belong to UPDF, Police, Prisons or UWA, will be pooled and deployed at the District Health Offices, including the divisions of Kampala, with their drivers, staying in tented compounds, ready to help in those health emergencies. Those vehicles will be under the command of the District Medical Officer.
14. On account of this pandemic, some sectors of the economy are suffering, such as the tourism industry, the entertainment industry, the transport industry, etc. However, as I said earlier, new opportunities are emerging in this misfortune. You have seen how the demand for sanitizers, face masks, bicycles, etc., has stimulated new industrial opportunities.
15. We are going to discuss with Banks, electricity companies and water companies in connection with the loans and bills, many people have with these units. It is not correct to disconnect water or electricity on account of non-payment during this time of shutdown or to seize properties on account of the non-payment of loans.
16. Government workers should also stay at home for the 14 days, except for the Army, the Police, the Health workers, the Electricity, Water and Telephone workers. Even there, however, SOPs should be worked out for the soldiers, etc., that do not stay in the barracks. This problem of not staying near the workplace is something I have never supported.
Truth told, there are many gaps which need filling vis a vis the implementation of these guidelines and added information is awaited to get clarity on a number of areas outlined by President Museveni. Once available will those added details be share here.