Prime
Covid test: Govt tightens timeframe for travellers
Travellers at Entebbe International Airport in October last year. A new government policy will require all people moving in and out of the country to carry out a Covid-19 test within 72 hours. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- According to Ministry of Health, the testing capacity has increased from 74,000 in previous months to 151,000 PCR tests per month.
With effect from Saturday, all categories of travellers will be required to present a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours as opposed to the earlier 120-hour requirement.
Dr Henry Mwebesa, the director general of health services at the Ministry of Health, said the new policy seeks to curb the spread of new Covid-19 variants that are circulating in 85 countries.
Uganda is one of the countries struggling to contain the spread of the Delta variant.
“All travellers arriving or departing from Uganda are required to have a Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of travel. Please note that the 72 hours begins on the day the sample is collected for testing,” Dr Mwebesa said in a statement yesterday.
Initially, government had indicated a 72-hour duration, however, the policy was relaxed to 120 hours. Government has yet again revised the timeline to 72 hours.
Dr Charles Olaro, the director of curative services at the Ministry of Health, said the longer periods of testing leave gaps for people to interact before travel.
“When a longer period of 120 hours is given, people test but they may get infected with the virus as they wait for results,” Dr Olaro said.
Since March last year when Uganda registered her first Covid-case, more than 1.3 million tests have been conducted and of these, 79,977 people have turned positive. At least 52,961 have recovered from the virus.
According to Ministry of Health, the testing capacity has increased from 74,000 in previous months to 151,000 PCR tests per month. Government projects to increase the capacity to 320,000 PCR tests by the end of June.
In a bid to prevent the spread of new Covid variants, the government suspended all passenger flights from India last month and categorised countries based on the presence of variants of concern, high rate of transmission of the disease and number of deaths reported.
The government also advised people intending to fly into Uganda from the US, the UK, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan ,and Tanzania, among others, to postpone non-essential travels.
However, those travellers from the above categories, who were referred to as Category Two, including nationals, are subjected to a PCR Covid-19 test at points of entry. However, we could not establish if there have been changes in categories of countries on travels. The Ministry of Health had not provided us with such information by press time.
UK travel ban
The United Kingdom added Uganda to its travel ban red list last week to prevent the spread of new Covid-19 variants. The UK had aslo earlier this year red listed several other countries including South Africa, the UAE, Burundi and Rwanda among others.
