Minister Nabakooba to Ugandans: Use buses, taxis at your own risk

ICT and national guidance minister Judith Nabakooba has warned Ugandans against using Public transport means such as buses, bodabodas and taxis after majority of recent Covid19 cases revealed they had used these modes of transport.

MINISTER NABAKOOBA STATEMENT ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN COVID19 TIMES

The public generally must therefore admit that we have ourselves to blame for the current situation. We have failed to take seriously the guidance from our experts.

I want to call upon all leaders regardless of their political or religious inclination to own up and speak the same language when it comes to preventing Covid19.

It is unfortunate that some leaders are continuing to use their spaces to confuse the public with statements that question the existence of Covid19.

It is such reckless comments and behavior hat have gotten us to where we are today. Every life lost to Covid19 is very unfortunate because all the guidance on how to stay safe is with us.

When it comes to Kampala, our capital city has now turned out be the biggest source of Covid19 infections and deaths. As of yesterday, Kampala had registered 65 new cases.

The public must understand that almost 90% of all these new infections in Kampala are from people using taxis and buses.

This should not come as a surprise because all public transporters in the taxi parks and bus terminals failed to administer the guidelines that were given when the lockdown was lifted.

I therefore want to warn all people who continue to use public transport that you are putting your life at a high risk of catching Covid19.

If you must use public transport, ensure to have your mask on all the time, remember to sanitise when boarding and when disembarking.

The Minister for Transport recently sent out the final warning to all public transport operators, the fate is now in your hands.

The situation with Arcades and Markets continues to be bad. The list of arcades and markets failing to observe the guidelines continues to grow every day.

I therefore continue to advise everyone, please stay away from the city center if what is taking you there is not so important.

As government it is not in our interest to announce another lockdown because people’s livelihoods are adversely affected.

However under the current circumstances, it is obvious that people will only comply after another lockdown has been put in place.

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