President Yoweri Museveni has put his foot down and rejected calls for a broader Lockdown to control the spread of Ebola as demanded by the medical fraternity in Uganda.
Museveni revealed his decision on Twitter after hosting a party for the Indian community who are celebrating the Diwali festival.
Museveni said: “Regarding the Ebola situation, first of all, there will be No LOCKDOWN. Therefore people should go ahead and concentrate on their work without worry. However, we should be more vigilant and observe the SOPs put in place to control the Ebola spread.”
Perhaps to emphasize his stance, the President’s wrote in Capital letters, to send a strong warning against those who were pushing the government to lockdown the country.
The medical fraternity led by the Ministry of Health and the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) have recently called for more restrictions on movement as a way to control the spread of the disease.
The Ministry of Health called for an early end to the school term that is already coming towards the end, while UMA asked the government to impose a nationwide lockdown. The government rebuffed at both proposals.
The calls from the medical fraternity have spread panic in the population which feared that a lockdown was imminent. A new lockdown, coming even before most people had recovered from the two-year long COVID lockdown, many people and organisations, warned would be disastrous for the economy.
An earlier lockdown that was slapped on Mubende and Kassanda three weeks ago, expired on Friday November 4. The President is yet to come out to say whether the two districts will see some freedom.
The President’s stance has attracted praises from his many followers on Twitter, with many expressing relief about the impact of panic that has started to crop up.
Edward Tujunirwe, a University lecturer at Cavendish said: “Thank you for the reassurance. Many people were so worried. Some schools were already panicking and forcing children to do exams as early as this week fearing to close before doing their end of year exams.”
