March 9th 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – At least 22 foreign delegates who had travel Ugandan Dictator, Yoweri Museveni, signing an SPLM/A document(Photo: file)led to Uganda for the Uganda-EU Business Forum were denied entry into the country on suspicion coronavirus.
Government, on Saturday through the ministry of Health asked travelers from countries with high cases of coronavirus not to travel to Uganda unless for essential reasons.
According to the ministry, the 22 delegates arrived in the country on Saturday for the Forum at Speke Resort and Conference Centre, in Kampala but were not willing to follow the ministry’s self-quarantine guidelines, and as such were asked to return to their countries of origin.
While the ministry has not disclosed which countries the 22 delegates are from, it is believed that they were from the high-risk countries which the ministry refers to as category 1 countries. Countries in this category have had high numbers of COVID-19 cases. They include; China, Italy, South Korea, Iran, Spain, France and Germany.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the minister of Health on her Twitter handle said that none of the 22 delegates exhibited any signs of coronavirus.
“Yesterday [Saturday], we received 22 passengers from the category 1 countries who were identified by our health workers at the airport. None of them exhibited signs and symptoms of COVID-19. We informed them about our procedure of self-quarantine for 14 days. However, they were not willing to undergo this self-quarantine,” said Aceng.
Self-quarantine for 14 days is one of the COVID 19 preventive measures that the ministry of Health has put in place for all travellers coming from COVID-19 hit zones. The ministry also issued a travel ban to Ugandans who were intending to travel to category 1 countries. Government also cancelled all upcoming international conferences that were scheduled to take place in the country.
While no COVID 19 cases have been reported in the country yet, the ministry of Health is on high alert and it’s asking all persons with in the country to follow set guidelines that include washing hands frequently, avoiding gatherings and staying home if one is sick and undergoing medication.
As of March 8, 2020 data from World Health Organisation shows that over 106,759 people are infected with the disease in over 92 countries.
