By Tonny Abet
The National Covid-19 Task Force is today expected to present Covid-19 situation report to President Museveni ahead of the full reopening of the economy next week.
The high-level meeting will shape the President’s end of year address to the nation on December 31, especially as the country experiences a drastic increase in Covid-19 cases amid low vaccination coverage.
Faruk Kirunda, the deputy Press Secretary to the President says the President’s address to the nation will be on December 31 which is after today’s meeting with the National Task Force.
Officials at the Ministry of Health and government scientists have reassured the country that they are in support of full reopening of the economy and schools but emphasized that Ugandans will have to take personal responsibility of getting vaccinated and adhering to preventive measures to remain alive.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that the daily number of cases of Covid-19 increased from 32 on December 2 when 5,800 samples were tested, to as high as 1,100 cases on December 24 after testing nearly 8,000 samples.
Positivity rate also shot up from 0.5 percent on December 2 to 14 percent on December 24 amid fears that the spike is caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus. But the number of deaths have not increased.
According to the Ministry, the positivity rate of 5 percent is desirable as it indicates control of the pandemic.