Museveni orders Covid-19 Task Force on reopening of schools, bars

President Museveni has directed the National Task Force on COVID-19 Response to look into how the government can facilitate safe reopening of schools.

According to the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Judith Nabakooba, the president met the Task Force this past Friday. “On Friday, His Excellency met with the National Task Force team and instructed them to review the possibility of a phased reopening of schools starting with candidate classes and clinical medical students,” she said in a news release.

In a separate tweet, the president said the Task Force will be meeting this coming week, and they’ll also discuss reopening of other places of gathering that are still under lockdown.

“The national #Covid19 task force will meet this week, to see what to do with the schools, churches, bars, and others,” reads the tweet posted Sunday morning. Aside from churches, schools and bars, some sectors like markets, entertainment, tourism, sports and aviation are still closed or partially open.

“The Task force will provide a report to His Excellency on these issues by early next week. He will then address the nation on the next steps,” Minister Nabakooba revealed.

However, the minister noted that cases of Covid-19 continue to soar, with 29 deaths registered in a space of one month since July. “New infections continue to be registered every day and we are now at 2847 cases as of yesterday,” she said, adding: “With all this, bars are illegally operating; people are attending weddings and funerals in large numbers without masks and social distancing.”

Accordingly, President Museveni has directed the enforcement of strict COVID-19 directives. Among the directives, the minister said, is the immediate arrest of any politician or government official who directly or indirectly facilitates political campaign gatherings or big rallies.

“I, therefore, want to alert fellow politicians to stick to the guidance by the electoral commission or else risk being arrested,” said Nabakooba. “Police has been instructed to enforce other existing guidelines such as curfew time for boda bodas, private and public transport and others.”