The number of people catching and dying of COVID-19 in Uganda has greatly increased beyond what the government is reporting.
The most unfortunate bit about the current state of the pandemic in Uganda is that the government stopped to warn the general public to keep their guard against the pandemic.
Secondly, the general public has increasingly become dangerously dismissive of the extent of the threat.
So people no longer wear face masks, wash hands, continue to congregate in large numbers and go about life as if there is no problem.
This has been brought about by the government’s own stance against the pandemic that relaxed controls perhaps due to the electoral process and may be due to the economic hardships that were claiming businesses.
The responsibility ultimately falls squarely on each and every Ugandan, especially those that read this, to spread the message that COVID is real and must be
Our contribution to the fight against COVID can be in many ways.
Stop the spread of misinformation and rumours that people, especially the public figures are dying of poison. Such baseless claims have only contributed to arming the virus by ensuring that people focus on other things.
Police ourselves by ensuring that we wear masks correctly but also call out those that are not wearing them to either put them on or they leave our midst. Along the same lines, we must ensure that we call out operators of public transport to refrain from killing the social distance in the vehicle in the name of making money.
Avoid large public gatherings such as prayer places like churches and mosques because at such gatherings are fertile grounds for the spread of the disease given the proximity, singing or praise and preaching. As science has proven, the louder the voice, the further the disease spreads.
Protect our seniors – parents and grandparents. Experts have concluded that while many people might already be infected with the COVID virus, it’s the elderly that fall victim because of the weak lungs and immune systems.
Minimize movement. We may be in a hectic period characterized with end of year festivities as well as political campaigns. But we need to limit out movement by for example sending money to our loved ones instead of traveling there which may increase the spread of the disease.
