Uganda’s health minister on Saturday extended a three-week lockdown in two districts hit by an Ebola epidemic, with travel bans and the closure of public places, in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.
Last month, President Yoweri Museveni ordered the closure of these two districts: Mubende and Kassanda. He had imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, banned travel and closed markets, bars and churches for 21 days.
“The lockdown in Mubende and Kassanda districts instituted by the president on October 15, 2022 will be extended for another 21 days,” Health Minister Jane Aceng said. This measure is accompanied by the same prohibitions as in October.
“We call on the population to comply and stay alert,” he added.
A national containment excludes
Since the Ministry of Health first declared an Ebola outbreak in the central district of Mubende on September 20, the disease has spread throughout the East African country, including the capital Kampala.
Authorities say 51 people have succumbed to the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) for its part said on Wednesday that Uganda had recorded more than 150 confirmed and probable cases.
Despite the worrying increase in the number of cases, Yoweri Museveni again ruled out this Friday decreeing a national confinement as per Covid-19 in order to contain the spread of Ebola.
WHO concern
This Wednesday, the WHO expressed its concern after the first cases of Ebola in the Ugandan capital and called on neighboring countries to urgently increase their level of preparation for a possible spread of the virus.
Uganda has experienced several Ebola epidemics, including the previous one in 2019. There is currently no vaccine against the strain of Ebola virus, known as the “Sudanese strain,” that is currently wreaking havoc in this country.
Ebola is an often deadly viral hemorrhagic fever. The disease owes its name to a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where it was discovered in 1976. Human transmission is through body fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.
Source: BFM TV
