President Museveni locks down Uganda for 42 days, revises curfew

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni during a State of the Nation address. [Courtesy]

Uganda has been locked down for 42 days, following a surge in Covid-19 infections.

The nationwide curfew has been revised to start at 7 pm- 5.30 am.

President Yoweri Museveni made the directive on Friday evening from State House in the capital Kampala, noting a relaxation in adhering to Covid-19 protocols.

Some of the new directives for Uganda include:

No movement of public transport, private vehicle, cars, and boda boda for 42 days.

Boda bodas will only be allowed to move up to 5 pm. They will also only transport cargo and patients on referral by a medical worker.

The Ugandan government says this is because it wants people to stay at home. “This virus does not transport itself. It's transported by you. We are killing ourselves,” Museveni said in a televised address.

All trans-boundary private and public transport has been suspended.

All schools and institutions of higher learning remain closed for 42 days.

Only emergency and essential vehicles are allowed to move.

Places of worship and sporting facilities will remain suspended for 42 days, while burials are restricted to family only.  

Tourists are allowed into Uganda but on condition that they are vaccinated, and will only use designated vehicles.

Museveni noted the need to introduce stricter measures saying those he announced in the last address were not being observed nor achieving the intended objectives.

Uganda has been recording up to 1,000 daily infections of the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Museveni added: “We have noted a number of danger signals in the trend of this pandemic. These help to alert us on how we are doing. Some of these include increasing numbers of daily COVID-19 cases per week.”

The country closed schools for 42 days on June 6 and directed all teachers to be fully vaccinated before they are accepted back into schools.

Currently, Uganda has 40,734 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 334 deaths.