Museveni Closes Entebbe AIrport as Uganda Registers First Coronavirus Case

President Yoweri Museveni has directed that starting from Monday, March 23, no person should be allowed to enter Uganda in the latest clampdown against deadly Coronavirus disease.

While addressing the nation for the second time in less than one week, Museveni said that no one person will be allowed in the country by any means of transport.

“In my address of March 18, I had directed the health authorities to allow people to come to Uganda but be quarantined. But due to the indiscipline of some individuals, we have now decided to review that position and tighten the preventive measures,” he said

“Consequently, we have decided among other things, to prohibit all incoming passengers where by air, land or water. All passenger planes coming from outside Uganda from landing at any of the airports in Uganda.”

He noted that only cargo planes or those involved in relief work will be allowed to fly into and outside of Uganda.

According to Museveni, the crews of these cargo or mission planes will be accommodated in locations agreed with by the concerned authorities.

“Domestic flights will continue for now, until the need to stop them arises,” he said.

He, however, said that in conformity with the East African community agreement, the drivers of cargo trucks and their helpers not exceeding three will be allowed to enter or get out of Uganda.

“No buses, no min-buses, no salon cars, no taxis, no boda bodas will be allowed in the country. Also, pedestrians walking on foot or riding on bicycles will not be allowed to enter Uganda by water, by road or by footpath nor will they be allowed to exit by those means,” the President said.

Museveni, to put these new measures into force, called upon the Local Council One leaders in the border areas to work with security personnel to enforce the new orders. Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo are Ugandan neighbours that are already battling the Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has confirmed the first case of Coronavirus at Entebbe.

The case is of a 36-year-old Ugandan man who arrived in the country from Dubai aboard Ethiopian Airlines at 2 am on Saturday.

“He presented with high fever and poor appetite,” the Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng said in a statement on Saturday evening.

The COVID-19 case came barely hours after national prayers held at State House and the President’s closure of border points and Entebbe Airport as an additional measure to keep away the disease. The President had directed that no one will be allowed to enter Uganda beginning Monday March 23.

Museveni had on Wednesday announced the first set of measures, which included the closure of schools and suspension of religious and other social gatherings, as a way to avoid the highly contagious viral disease. Uganda was the only country spared by the virus which has ravaged all the East African neighbors and several other countries in the world since December last year.

Speaking during the prayer service led by the inter-religious council at State House on Saturday, President Yoweri Museveni noted that it was by God’s grace that Uganda hadn’t registered any Coronavirus case then, given the reckless life most Ugandans live. He added that the prayers were meant for Ugandans to stick more to God in the face of this global pandemic.

Patient Isolated

Minister Aceng says the patient has been isolated at Entebbe Grade B Hospital, while “the passenger manifest has been retrieved and all contacts are known as we are in possession of the passports of the travelers that came on that plane.”

“The public is hereby requested to remain calm and vigilant and to report any suspected cases,” the Minister said.