COVID -19 Situation is a Matter of Life and Death, Says Museveni as he Issues New Directives

President Yoweri Museveni has emphasized the gravity of the coronavirus situation that has seen over 80,000 people across the globe dead and nearly 1.5 million infected.

In his televised address on Wednesday evening, the tough speaking Museveni described the covid19 situation as “a matter of life and death” warning those complaining of inconvenience.

“We are talking about life and death,” He added that “the lockdown is not a matter of convenience.”

Museveni lashed out at those complaining of business frustration and those “being bored” staying at home during the lockdown. He vowed to become “harsh” on actors who do not understand how serious this situation is, noting that the fight against the new coronavirus is easy as a collaborative effort involving the adherence to the general countrywide measures as well as individual initiative.

Landlords warned

In the meantime, Mr Museveni ordered landlords not to evict tenants on account of failure to pay rent dues during this crisis.

"To the Landlords trying to evict people because of rent, this is not allowed. We are all in a COVID-19 crisis. The world is not ending today; you can always demand your money later when all this is over."

President Museveni recently declared a countrywide lockdown, a night curfew, closed schools and suspended religious and other social gatherings. Among other measures intended to stem the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19, Museveni also banned both public and private transport for two weeks, to limit people’s movement during the covid19 crisis.

Now, the president has also directed that people jogging on roads should stop and instead do it at home.

"I saw a video of so many people on the Northern bypass walking and running around that, they are exercising. This should stop. If you want to exercise, you can do that indoors. I will show you how it is done tomorrow. I will do a video for you," he said.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s COVID-19 confirmed cases now stand at 53, with the latest case recorded on Wednesday at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe.

“One case of COVID-19 confirmed out of the 214 samples tested today at @UVRIug. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 53 in Uganda,” the Ministry of Health twitted.

In his address, President Museveni said most of the samples were from the quarantine group while others were from the districts that had been suspected of having come in contact with the returnees. According to the health ministry, a cumulative total of 3,524 samples have been tested for COVID-19, while the number of individuals under institutional quarantine has reduced from the original 1,040 to 613 as of Tuesday.