Following the closure of schools, churches and sports in March this, the president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has finally reopened schools, churches and sports with full observance of covid19 guidelines.
In his nation address this evening, the president confirmed that candidates and finalists at universities will resume classes on 15th October this year.
The president further said that candidates and finalists are very few to carry on with lessons.
“ The country can’t afford to have two candidate and finalists classes in a single year hence the need to allow the primary seven, senior four and six candidates plus university finalists resume classes to complete their respective education stages.”
Now that candidates and university finalists are soon getting back to class, the president makes it clear that the rest of the learners will resume classes in January next year.
He put more emphasis on observing covid19 SOPs with more options to support learners from private schools that would not be in position to fully take on the numbers. He also mentioned that the UGX.20 billion grant for private schools teachers is still in the pipe to facilitate their recovery.
Uganda has two million secondary school learners against 40,000 classrooms and 3340 secondary schools which according to Museveni they are enough to accommodate the current number of candidates.
The president also confirms that distance learning will continue as long as the pandemic still stands and to better facilitate this, government will soon provide nine million radios to learners still at home to keep learning and keep tabs with other learners attending virtual classes.
Believers have cried out loud to have places of worship reopened and Jesus has answered their prayers as they have also been shown the green light with each prayer session to have not more than 70 participants, no night prayers and no Sunday school.
However, the airport and borders have been opened with travelers asked to follow the standard operating procedures among them, foreign tourists to fly in with covid19 test results done in the last 72 hours of their travels. They will also be driven direct to their places of tour or hotels with Ugandan returning for visits must present covid19 positive test results upon arrival and will not be quarantined but will self quarantine from their homes under close monitoring from the life ministry.
With bars, casinos and gaming places still closed, sports activities are also open but closed to spectators.
The president also called for routine testing and quarantining of teams for the time of the tournament. But curfew still remains with boda boda riders asked to follow the specific time which was announced by the president.
The president expressed concern with Kampala residents holding the flag in the spread of the disease, with current statistics showing, out of the total registered 6287 positive cases across the country Kampala accounts for 2097 (30%) positive cases.
And its upon this that the president reminds the residents of Kampala to be the doctors of their own as this will help crack down on the speed its spreading to new people.
Covid19 can be transmitted by through close contact with a positive person, failing to observe social distancing, not washing hands regularly or not sanitizing the hands among others.
