Uganda conducting massive COVID-19 vaccination drive

To this end, following MOH guidelines, travelers from Category 2 including the USA, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Tanzania including Ugandan nationals shall be subjected to a PCR test at points of entry at their own cost. Travelers from Category 2 that have been fully vaccinated and have proof of vaccination to attest to this shall not be required to undergo the mandatory PCR testing on arrival.

This exemption from COVID-19 testing is premised on a growing body of scientific evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the USA which shows that people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to present with symptoms and to spread the virus that causes COVID-19. As such, vaccination is seen as a strong tool to control the virus, and many countries are using vaccinations to control COVID-19 transmission.

Based on this, travelers from countries that have achieved 50 percent coverage or at least one dose of COVID-19 and present full proof of vaccination upon arrival will be exempt from mandatory PCR testing upon arrival at the airport.

Travelers from countries that have not achieved 50 percent coverage and have not received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, shall be required to undergo mandatory PCR testing at their own cost upon arrival at the airport or at other points of entry.

The current mandatory testing from countries in category 1 and 2 has enabled the country to curb the spread of variants.

Testing of travelers arriving through land borders without test certificates from recognized laboratories shall be intensified based on the epidemiological picture of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health categorizes countries based on the current global trend of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the risk they pause, according to the variants of concern, the high rate of transmission, deaths reported in the past 3 months, and coverage of vaccination. The categorization is reviewed every week according to the epidemiological picture of the pandemic globally.

India is the only country in category 1 where all flights and passengers originating from India were suspended as of May 1, 2021, 23:59 hours.

In category 3 are travelers from the rest of the countries who do not present with symptoms of COVID-19 and who are exempted from the above measures.

The Ministry of Health has assured tour operators that there shall be no lock down. Tour operators shall, however, have every reason to remain edged to their seats as President Yoweri T. K. Museveni gives another of his dozen plus anecdotal nationwide live addresses on Sunday, June 6, at 20:00 hours local time on the course of action following the recent spike in cases.  

Several have already received confirmed bookings in June and can barely afford to wait out another high season without business.

Cumulative cases since the start of the pandemic are 49,759; cumulative recoveries are 47,760; active cases on admission at health facility are 522; new cases are 1,083; and there have been 365 deaths.

To date, 4,327 travelers entering Uganda from category 1 and 2 countries through Entebbe International Airport have undergone testing for COVID-19. Out of these, 50 of the samples turned out positive and were transferred to COVID-19 isolation units. The confirmed cases originated from 8 countries include UAE – 16, South Sudan – 15, Kenya – 6, USA – 6, Eritrea – 3, Ethiopia – 2, South Africa – 1, and The Netherlands – 1.  

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Tony Ofungi - eTN Uganda

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