KAMPALA – A Cabinet sub committee has recommended an extension of the current lockdown over coronavirus by another 14 days on account of rising cases from the community, PML Daily has established.
On Friday and Saturday, two cases from the communities were found to be positive of the deadly virus; one a police officer from Bunyoro and the other a resident of Rakai who recently came from Tanzania. They were discovered from a community testing survey flagged off by the Ministry of Health early this week.
And now it has emerged that this informed the special Cabinet sub committee meeting that sat on Saturday, May 2 to recommend that the lockdown be extended by 14 days to allow completion of the community testing survey.
The community testing survey seeks to establish the extent at which coronavirus pandemic may have entered the community given that the country has now been reporting cases from truck drivers from neighbouring countries.
A source privy to the meeting said that President Museveni listened intently to the suggestions, asking questions from the committee members, including Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, and taking notes.
Nevertheless, the source said, the committee recommended relaxing of the current lockdown measures such as allowing a few more businesses and offices to reopen but under tough restrictions such as social distancing.
PML Daily had earlier exclusively reported that the committee had recommended a phased lifting of the lockdown, to which the President directed them to work out an implementation plan and report to him by Saturday, May 2.
However, this website established that earlier on Saturday morning, the health team changed plan on seeing the first case from the community in Masindi during the assessment survey. It was on this basis that they made a recommendation to the President.
The President is set to address the country on Monday from where he will communicate the next step.
