President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on 30th July 2021, eased the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, allowing the partial re-opening of selected businesses, sectors, movements, sporting activities.

This follows a reduction in the average daily cases of COVID-19, and the necessity to balance the various social and economic concerns. Ideally, there are a lot of lessons learnt and we hope it will help us remain vigilant and avoid a third wave of the pandemic.

According to Fred  Enanga, Police police spokesperson revealed that during previous week, a total of 1400 new cases were registered, 5637 victims recovered from corona virus, only 106 deaths were registered and as of 30.7.2021, only 626 victims remain hospitalized across the country. We are happy that the country has helped bring down the COVID-19 levels, and we want to thank the public for their high levels of compliance. Now that we are into a partial lockdown, after the 42 day lockdown, we should remain vigilant and not let our guards downs.

From the side of the Joint Security Agencies, our message still remains very clear and consistent. And since we are not yet at a zero COVID-19 level, our focus remains enforcement of the partial lockdown and curfew.

“We are going to ensure all private and public motor vehicles, are operating at the recommended capacity of 3 persons for private cars, two persons for cargo trucks, a 50% operating capacity for public passenger vehicles and bodabodas to strictly carry one passenger from 5:30am – 6:00pm. Any motorists, drivers and passengers working, outside these controlled provisions, will have their movements disrupted and sanctions of fines, penalties and punishments taken against them”,he said.

Additionally, we shall enforce and ensure compliance of the SOPs for businesses at Kikuubo, all malls, arcades and other shopping centers. One new area for strict monitoring is the 20% requirement for staff in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, after several cases of COVID-19 were registered in different MDAs during this second wave.

All our territorial commanders have been tasked to coordinate their operations with the respective District task forces and representatives from the business community, taxis, bodabodas, arcades and malls, sports, food markets etc to ensure strict compliance of the SOPs. The advantage with the new guidelines is that they will be reviewed on a bi-weekly basis for infection trends. We, therefore urge all proprietors in the sectors indicated above to appoint managers responsible for implementing the precautionary measures, behaviors of their staff and the clientele they serve.

For proprietors of sectors that are still restricted like bars, schools, conferences, workshops and seminars (unless if cleared by Ministry of Health), gyms, pool tables, casinos, betting centers, saunas and steam baths, places of worships, seasoned markets. We urge them to remain patient and abide by the rules and regulations. The government is easing the lockdown in a safe and phased manner. Any premature lifting of these sectors could spark a refulgence of infections and a third wave if not well managed. Burials and weddings remain limited to only 20 persons.

During the previous week, a total of 2336 persons were arrested for flouting the lockdown and curfew provisions, 1624 were cautioned, 206 released on bond, 59 pending court, 430 persons were taken to court; a total of 696 motor vehicles were impounded, out of which 559 were issued with EPS tickets, 137 motorists were cautioned, a total of 3952 motorcycles were impounded, out of which 2551 were issued with EPS tickets, 835 riders were cautioned and 299 motorcycles still unclaimed.