By Andrew Irumba
Two time Fort Portal Municipality Member of Parliament Alex Ruhunda Akiiki aka #Nikisoboka on Monday joined the rest of the world in fight against Coronavirus (COVID-19) by urging his electorates and all Ugandans to wash their hands with soap as many times as possible in order to control the spread of Codiv-19 pandemic that has ravaged the most advanced continents of the world.
It should be noted that in his Presidential Guidelines to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, president Yoweri Museveni advised all Ugandans to wash their hands with water, soap or use sanitizer, as one of the easiest ways to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
So, in line with President’s directives, MP Ruhunda yesterday (Monday) donated several hand washing utensils, tanks and detergents worth millions of shillings to people of Fort Portal Tourism City.
Among the beneficiary groups were traders in Fort Portal main Matooke Market, who were seen jubilating as they made use of the same as soon as they got the donation from the Tourism City advocate.
While commenting about the exercise Hon. Ruhunda noted that he was happy to see that most of the people had already taken the president’s advice and were indeed washing their hands, keeping social distance among other measures.
“Yesterday I moved to the major Matooke market in FORT PORTAL, to strengthen the hand wash campaign in the fight against Corona Virus! I’m happy the local people have taken the message seriously! Now with the lockdown of many businesses, we need to tighten our belts for the hard times as we fight this deadly virus,” he posted on his social media platform, Facebook this afternoon.
Meanwhile, we have established that President Museveni is set to address the nation again tonight Tuesday at 8pm about Coronavirus, during which time he is expected to make clarifications on the drastic measures he issued during his Monday night address.
Below Are Key Highlights From The President’s Address Of Last Evening, Mar 30th 2020 Upon Which He Will Come Back Today To Shed More Light On:
Due to disobedience of Government Guidelines, it is better to err on the side of caution than making a mistake and as such following additional measures are announced:
1) Prohibit People to People movement including Private cars from April 01, 2020 till April 14th, 2020
2) shopping malls and arcades are suspended effective April 1st, 2020
3) All non-food stores/shops should be closed effective April 1st, 2020.
Food stores and shops selling agricultural inputs, pharmaceuticals will remain open, Consider, online shopping and home deliveries for groceries
4) Supermarkets should remain open with clear SOPs on minimizing infections within the supermarket
5) Established food markets in Kampala and other towns should continue to be open but with the social distancing taken into serious consideration (4meteres)
6) Sellers/Factory workers should however organize accommodation of staff at premises of work for 14 days… In other words stay close to your place of work.
If factories can’t implement this, they should suspend production for 14 days
7) Salons, lodges will be closed for 14 days effective April 1st, 2020
8) Construction firms that can’t abide with the accommodation facilities should be shut down for 14 dayd
9) Essential services are: medical, banking, security, cleaning, garbage collection, fire brigade, KCCA staff, URA, télécommunications, UNRA, funeral services, utilities,
10) Cargo transportation by train, aeroplanes, lorries etc should continue but with only 3 persons supervised by Minister of works and transportation
11) Gatherings of more than 5 people prohibited down from prior guidelines of 10.
12) Except for cargo planes, lorries, pickups, from March 31st, 2020 at 19:00, there will be a curfew for all Ugandans.
13) RDC will give permission for emergency medical situations like childbirth etc
14) Government vehicles will be pooled at the district offices for use by the Health Officers
15) À fund in UDB will be set to accelerate import substitution and export promotion
16) Government will discuss with Banks, utilities on credit obligations by Ugandans during this period
17) Government Employees should stay home except UPDF, UPF, Utilities, Banks, and even then SOPs will be shared.
18) Government will distribute food (maize flour, beans, powder milk, salt, sugar) to the less advantaged communities after close identification
Opportunistic politicians distributing food will be arrested as they pose a health risk to the community and charged with attempted murder
19) Stop trying to take people to hospital, you may in the process of doing good be spreading the virus to the community
20) Contributions received: USD150, 000 from Elemyu (sp) from Nigeria and 2 jeeps from the Chinese in Mbale
21) let’s not lose people on account of indiscipliné; not washing hands, congregating in numbers, touching the soft parts of the face with unclean hands
Remember Isaiah 26: 20
