KAMPALA — President Yoweri Museveni will tonight at 8:00 p.m. deliver the much awaited address in which he is expected to announce additional lockdown measures as the country works to stop the recent surge in coronavirus infections and deaths.
“Fellow Countrymen, Countrywomen, Bazukulu, I will address the country TODAY at 8:00pm on a number of issues but mostly the COVID-19 situation. I call upon you to tune in to the different radio & TV stations for this address,” Mr. Museveni tweeted Thursday evening.
Uganda in the past 48 hours registered 34 deaths, the second highest ever recorded in a day, bringing the total number to 542.
The country also recorded 1584 new cases out of the 10816 tests conducted.
Ministry of Health data indicated that by June 15 the country had recorded a total of 67, 215 Covid-19 cases and 48,823 recoveries.
Some 950 patients are admitted in hospitals across the country. The positivity rate stands at 14.6per cent.
The President Yoweri Museveni had re-imposed a strict lockdown that included the closure of schools and the suspension of inter-district travel to help beat back a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The measures, which will be effective almost two weeks ago, included the closure of all educational institutions, some bans on travel, the shutdown of weekly open markets, and the suspension of church services.
Most of the new restrictions, Museveni said, would be implemented for 42 days. An assessment of their impact will then help the government decide whether to ease or prolong them, he added.
Uganda implemented one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, but it was gradually lifted as cases slowed to a trickle.
Since May, however infections started to spike and new cases, particularly among younger people, have surged, fuelling fears that the country could slip into an out-of-control second wave.
The government, he said, was worried the jump in cases would “exhaust the available bed space and oxygen supply in hospitals unless we constitute urgent public health measures”.
“In this wave the intensity of severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients and death is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic,” he said.
COVID-19 infections in Uganda are on an average daily basis at their peak, with 1500 new infections reported each day, according to Ministry of Health analysis.
Several people on social media has asked the President to announce a total lockdown at least one Kampala and Wakiso.
