President Yoweri Museveni has said government will not consider enforcing lockdowns as a measure of containing the spread of the Ebola virus.
Museveni made the remarks while addressing the country on issues of national importance including the Ebola outbreak. He said the virus is aggressive but it doesn’t spread easily like the Covid19.
“Government has the capacity to control this Ebola virus like we have done before, so there is no need for panic and unnecessary closure of schools, markets and restriction of movement for now,” Museveni raised.
“The Ebola virus won’t infect you until it gets to the body through the soft parts. It’s easy to fight this enemy. That’s why we decided that we won’t have lockdowns. We just have to take care of a few things.”
He said although the virus is deadly, the country is already in a proper position to control it. He said rapid response teams have already been deployed in the soft spots including in the Greater Mubende region to support in containing it’s spread.
Among other endeavors, he said the Ebola treatment unit at Mubende Referral Hospital now has a 51-bed capacity for confirmed cases and eight bed capacity for suspects. He also said a 31-bed capacity treatment unit has also been set up at Madudu Health Center III.
The president however, lashed out at media organisations for quoting wrong figures. He said so far there are 11 confirmed cases from Madudu sub-county in Mubende district, five cases from Mubende Municipality and five deaths all together.
“The initial case was a 24-year-old male in Mubende district. This person was seen on 15th September at Mubende Referral Hospital. He was isolated and given treatment while investigations were going on,” Museveni addressed.
“Unfortunately, we lost him (the first case) on 19th September, the day he tested positive for Ebola. I saw international media houses like Aljazeera quoting wrong figures Five people are the ones that have died from Ebola, and we have 24 confirmed cases, according to the Ministry of Health,” he added.