Billionaire Sudhir Ruparelia the founder and Chairman Ruparelia Group one of Uganda’s largest business conglomerates with investments in financial services, real estate, education services, hospitality, agriculture and media amongst others has tested negative for Covid-19.

The tests which were taken at the Makerere College of Health Sciences’ Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology on September 21, 2020 came back on September 22, 2020.

Regarding the pandemic’s impact on the Ugandan economy, Dr. Sudhir said that given the circumstances it was important to strike a balance between the economy and healthcare concerns as both were equally important.

“I would like to commend government’s progressive efforts on re-opening the economy. In the same spirit I would like to urge the business community, employers, school owners, employers, etc., to fully cooperate with government by enforcing all the SOPs at our premises,” he said.

Dr. Sudhir added that;- “Covid-19 is here with us and it will be for a couple of other months. We have to live with COVID-19 for at least the next 18 months when experts say a vaccine may be possible. It is important to observe all the SOPs issued by government both at home and out of home as well as to practice extra personal discipline. We need to fight this together and for each other,” he said.

On September 20th, President Museveni said the country cannot remain closed indefinitely and the impact of the pandemic can be minimised if government Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on the management of the disease are observed.

“We cannot and should not remain in lockdown indefinitely,” Mr. Museveni said adding: “The economy must grow; otherwise, bigger problems may show up.”

Currently, the country has 64 Covid19 deaths with most of them concetrated in Kampala.

The cumulative confirmed cases of Ugandans are 6,712.

Total Recoveries in Uganda are 2,778.