KAMPALA, Sept 21 (NNN-Xinhua) — Uganda on Sunday reopened its international airport and land borders for tourists and citizens who had been stranded abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The international airport and land borders will now be opened for tourists, coming in and going out, provided they tested negative 72 hours before arrival in Uganda,” said President Yoweri Museveni in a televised address.
Measures will be taken to ensure that tourists and returning Ugandans will not be mixed, he added.
“Tourists will be driven straight from the airport to their destinations or to designated transit hotels,” said Museveni.
While returning Ugandan citizens from abroad who have tested negative for COVID-19 will be allowed to go home directly, instead of being quarantined for 14 days as previously, he said, adding that “the health ministry will only get their addresses for follow up.”
“Restrictions on movements on border districts are hereby lifted,” Museveni noted.
According to Uganda Civil Aviation Authority last week, international flights will resume on Oct 1, about six months after the government closed airports in the wake of the pandemic.
In the televised address, Museveni said schools, colleges and universities will reopen for the 1.2 million students in candidate classes and finalists in tertiary colleges and universities on Oct 15.
“We think that it is safe because finalists in each learning institution are a much smaller number compared to the total enrollment,” said Museveni.
Finalists account for less than 10 percent of the total number of students, and “therefore, each group of finalists will have bigger space for social-distancing — whether they are in day schools or boarding schools,” he said.
A plan of further reopening schools for non-finalist learners will be decided by January 2021, he added.
Museveni earlier this month directed a national taskforce fighting against COVID-19 to review the possibility of a phased reopening of schools, colleges and universities after they were closed since March.
As of Sunday, Uganda has recorded 6,287 COVID-19 cases, 2,616 recoveries and 63 deaths, according to the health ministry. — NNN-XINHUA
