By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has cautioned residents of Kamuli against relaxing on the public health preventive measures for control of the coronavirus.
Kadaga who was launching the distribution of over 44,000 government masks in the district on Saturday, 17 July 2020 said she had observed people in business centres operating without masks, not maintaining social distancing and lack of hand washing facilities.
“As I was driving, I observed that people have abandoned public hygiene and no longer washing hands. If you go to Kikuubo, life is normal; no wearing masks, no social distancing, no hand washing and it is clear there no sanitizers,” Kadaga said.
Kadaga was equally disturbed on finding out that the locals are no longer adhering to the presidential directives on conducting public gatherings.
“When the lock down had started, a few people would attend funerals and for a short time but now people attend funerals in serious numbers and for hours” Kadaga said.
She castigated the district task force for failing to involve the local councils especially the village chairpersons who she said would have helped in adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures at grass root levels.
“The local councils are not involved in this programme. Despite having a district task force, I don’t see why people have abandoned hand washing and social distancing. I want to see the local council visible” Kadaga said.
She urged the task force to involve the village chairpersons in the mask distribution exercise as a way of popularizing the message behind wearing masks.
“I am told that in some villages when you go with a mask, you are the odd man out. We need to make them understand that it is a matter of life and death,” Kadaga said.
The acting District Health Officer, Dr. Fred Duku called on the Speaker to support the district in mobilizing funds for running COVID-19 activities.
Duku said the district secured an isolation unit at Kamuli hospital adding that, ‘there was no vehicle to transport health workers and the unit lacked essential commodities such as personal protective equipment for health workers and infection control commodities’.
