Kampala-President Yoweri Museveni has placed Mubende and Kassanda districts under lockdown to control the spread of Ebola in the country.
This, after the two districts registered high cases of Ebola ever since the outbreak was declared in Uganda on September 20, 2022. Other districts that have registered cases include Kyegegwa, Kagadi and Bunyangabu.
Currently, the cumulative confirmed Ebola deaths stand at 19, Cumulative confirmed cases at 58 while 20 people have recovered from the disease.
While addressing the country on the status of the disease on Saturday evening, Museveni announced a number measures to prevent its further spread.
The measures which took immediate effect and will last 21 days include the following.
1. Movements into and out of Mubende and Kassanda Districts is prohibited.
2. Movement from Kassanda to Mubende and vice versa is prohibited.
3. There will be Curfew in Mubende and Kassanda Districts starting from 7:00pm to 6:00am.
4. Movement of persons within their respective district (Mubende and Kassanda) is allowed.
5. Public transport, private transport and Boda-bodas are not permitted to move.
6. Only cargo vehicles, vehicles supporting the response to Ebola outbreak, authorized Government vehicles and Security vehicles are permitted to move but shall not take people in or out of Mubende and Kassanda.
7. Transit vehicles (public and private) crossing through Mubende and Kassanda Districts are permitted to move but with police clearance and shall not stop to pick or drop people .
8. Cargo trucks with only a driver and one turn-boy shall be allowed to deliver goods and may carry goods out of the districts but shall not carry passengers.
9. All cargo shall be delivered to the districts of Mubende and Kassanda during the day. Cargo vehicles shall be required to leave by 5:00pm and the operators will not sleep in any of the two districts. Anyone who sleeps in the districts shall remain there for 21 days.
10. All seasonal markets (butale bw’ Omubuulo) are suspended.
11. The Mines in Mubende will remain open for people in Mubende and the mines in Kassanda will remain open for the people in Kassanda. No crossing over. In addition, daily temperature checks, hand washing and symptom screening must be enforced by the proprietors.
Schools
12. Schools should remain open and learners should be allowed to move when in school uniform. Temperature of all learners, teachers and nonteaching staff should be monitored on a daily basis.
13. Any School absence must be reported immediately to the response teams and investigated.
14. All children, teachers and non-teaching staff who have had contact with a person who has signs and symptoms of Ebola should not go to school.
15. All places of worship shall be closed.
16. All bars, places of entertainment, bibanda, bidandali, gyms, and saunas shall be closed.
Other interventions
17. All burials (whether Ebola or not) shall be conducted by Safe Burial Teams during this period. Samples will be taken from all dead bodies and tested for Ebola.
18. Government should intensify public health awareness after fully understanding community issues, culture and traditions.
19. Ministry of Health must intensify surveillance and contact tracing in the two districts to pick out all possible cases.
20. Enforce hand washing/sanitizing using alcohol hand rub in both districts.
21. Ministry of Health will secure and deploy 20 ambulances from various districts and Regional Referral Hospitals to the two districts for continuity of essential health services.
22. Ministry of Health will mobilize and deploy 10 vans for transportation of health workers in the two districts.
23. Health workers with vehicles shall be given permits by the RDCs to move only within their districts.
24. Ministry of Health will provide PPEs to all registered health facilities (private and public) in the two districts.
President Museveni urged the public to cooperate with the authorities so that we bring this outbreak to an end in the shortest time possible.
Meanwhile, the President directed for full mobilization of Kampala City into response mode after two cases tested positive.This, he says, is because of the presence of contacts of these two cases and the risks of infection. The Ministry of health regards the the two cases as Mubende cases since they came from Mubende.
