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Mukono villages embrace hand washing to contain Covid-19
A woman pictured washing her hands in one of the villages in Mukono District. PHOTO/ JESSICA SABANO
Several villages in Mukono District have embraced hand washing as one of the ways of containing the spread of Covid-19 in their homes as most residents cannot afford to buy sanitizer.
Ms Elizabeth Nasanga, a resident of Katogo village in Nama Sub-county Mukono North constituency said hand washing with soap is vital in the fight against the virus which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the world.
She said in her village, they are over 200 families and decided to put up small jerricans in each family, specifically for washing hands.
"Washing after shaking hands or touching unclean surfaces is a good way to reduce transmission of the virus and bacteria, and is always a good practice," she said.
Ms Anne Kalungi, a resident in Kisowera village said since most of the residents cannot afford to buy sanitizer, they resorted to buying soap and putting jerricans of water in their homes to help family members and visitors to wash their hands.
"Hand washing is the earliest and cheapest way of preventing Covid-19 and this helps us to groom our children into good health," she said.
The Sub-county Local Chairperson, Mr JohnBosco Nsabirye said the rate at which Covid-19 spread during the second wave prompted them to sensitize residents to follow the ministry of health guidelines.
The Resident district commissioner Ms Fatuma Ndisaba lauded what she described as a good initiative taken by residents in some villages to prevent Covid-19.
She said Mukono district has over 700 villages, 150 of which were visited and found to have embraced handwashing.
“Thanks for caring for your lives and following the president's directives," she said.
According to the Ambassador of Japan to Uganda, Mr Fukuzawa Hidemoyo, hand hygiene is simple action accepted to be one of the primary modes of reducing health care associated infections and enhancing patient safety.
Faced with the Covid-19 threat, the president of Uganda urged the country to embrace handwashing practices as one of the key measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
