At least 58 arcades will be closed down in the next seven days following failure to adhere to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kampala.

The government has issued a strong warning after the number of Covid-19 related deaths in the capital’s Kampala showed an upward increase as time goes by.

Kampala Metropolitan area has become a hotspot for the pandemic, registering 15 deaths out of the 19 in the country.

Through the Ministry of Health, the government has informed the citizens to be extra careful since the deaths in the metropolitan area of Kampala are I creasing day in day out.

“We have noticed that the arcades that we opened are now violating SOPs, as a result, 58 arcades will be closed for failure to adhere to sops in the light of COVID pandemic. We have given them seven days to comply or risk closure,” Minister for Kampala Betty Amongi revealed on Friday.

She also gave members of the public a seven days’ ultimatum to be compliant or else a recommendation will be sent to the president proposing a lockdown.

“If we do not obtain cooperation from the public, we shall make recommendations to the president on what is the way forward. Kampala is the sitting room for Uganda, if we see that the sitting room is going to endanger the bedrooms, we shall ask that the sitting room be closed to safeguard the bedrooms. It is up to us to avoid the lockdown,” she said.

Amongi said that a number of recommendations have already been made to “localize the city’

“People are asking us to come up with a proposal to localize Kampala. We want your cooperation, in the next seven days, let us be able to turn around some complaint measures to avoid another lockdown,” she urged.

Among arcades that will be closed include; Mini Price, Vienna Business Centre, Naiga Chambers, Masaka Jubilee, Afro Complex, Sena Arcade, SB Plaza, and King Fahad.

Others are Sun City, Lucky Complex, Nabukeera, Quallicell, Zainab Aziza, Majestic, Namaganda, Energy Centre and Nasser road printers.

This comes barely a day after the country reported 3 new deaths bringing the total number of recorded deaths due to the novel Corona virus disease to 19.

In the recent times, president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has asked the citizens not to be reckless after passing by one of the major cities and finding most citizens without masks and crowding.