Pastor Noah Sematimba (L), Pastor Omongole David (R). COURTESY PHOTO.
As Ministry of Health (MoH) officials fight to flatten the coronavirus infection curve, national leaders are also debating how and when they can relax the strict lockdown in order to free most Ugandans from confinement.
There is little agreement on whether truck drivers from other countries should be let into Uganda. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country jumped up to 203 on 15 May, 2020 after 43 drivers from Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Eritrea tested positive.
This is the highest number of infections that Uganda has recorded in one day.
“Continuing to let truck drivers come into Uganda is the government’s own admission that COVID-19 is not as dangerous as they want to make the population believe,” Pastor Omongole David of Christos Rhema Church remarked on Friday.
According to Him, if Uganda’s government considered the virus “very dangerous” they would have closed all border entry points to limit imported cases.
President Museveni said last month blocking cargo is “suicidal and unnecessary.”
“I say it is suicidal because, if we stop cargo, how will our coffee (and cotton, tea, cotton, milk, cement from the factories and food) move?” said President Museveni then.
Pastor Omongole David urges that truck drivers’ activities should not continue at the expense of importing the virus.
“I asked a friend if he has used anything that has been imported by these truck drivers in the last two weeks and he couldn’t name anything. We use our own tomatoes, sugar, salt, beans, posho, cooking oil, etc. So what is being imported? And who is using it? Whatever it is, It is obviously not for everyone. Even if it was for everyone, it wouldn’t be that urgent to warrant the importation of a ‘very dangerous disease!'” Pastor Omongole said.
“We probably need new reasons for being forced to stay at home, making many lose jobs, destroying small businesses that the owners laboured a lot to build, not being allowed to congregate to worship, paralyse our education system, and even cause deaths to some people who wouldn’t access medical services because of wicked beaurocracies. For as long as those truck drivers are still coming in, it is not the virus but something else,” he added.
On his part, Pastor Noah Sematimba of Breakthrough Miracle Life Ministries notes that when the lockdowns were first proposed, the idea touted was to “flatten the curve.”
“It wasn’t to keep people from getting it (Covid-19) at all but rather to manage the rate of infections so as not to overwhelm the hospitals. Some times with these slogans of “stay home stay safe” we miss the critical part of what “flattening the curve” is intended to achieve,” Pastor Noah Sematimba said.
“Now it seems some have lost sight of this and think locking down permanently can keep people from getting it at all. The nation cannot remain on a permanent lockdown otherwise far more will die of other causes related to lockdown. This is supposed to be a time used to build capacity,” he continued.
“Unless a medical miracle of a vaccine or effective treatment happens soon, it is inevitable that given its rate of infection most will get it. But the rate is what needs to be managed so that when you do eventually get it and perhaps you are one of that small percentage who needs hospitalization, there actually is available hospital capacity to manage your symptoms,” Pastor Noah Sematimba said. “Of course for us the believers we need to remember that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The same one we have seen heal other sicknesses and disease is not fazed by Covid-19.”
Pastor Cyrus Mwase of Zion Saints Ministries International suspects people “may die not of COVID-19 but because of COVID-19.”
“The measures may not kick out COVID-19 but rather flatten the curve to a manageable infection rate. The long and continuous lockdown has far much reaching effects that are causing silent deaths,” he said.
Pastor Noah Sematimba shared Johns Hopkins statistics on several countries relating COVID-19 cases and ban on lockdown among other restrictions.
“Austria: since opening 30 days ago, daily COVID-19 cases down 82%. Germany: since opening 24 days ago, daily COVID-19 cases down 62%. Italy: since opening 10 days ago, daily COVID-19 cases down 47%.”
During the second national prayers hosted at Statehouse Entebbe on 9 May, President Yoweri Museveni said the East African Community Leaders of Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda and Uganda are in talks to have a common position for truck drivers to be tested where they are coming from.
He said Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta had proposed to have goods transported by train from Mombasa to Naivasha and drivers tested there before entering Uganda.
Mr Museveni said drivers should be tested twice a month and that there should be a tracking system installed to ensure they do not stop at ungazetted spots.
According to local media sources, Government has already launched the use of GeneXpert machines at borders, which will have truck drivers tested and receive their Covid-19 results before they proceed.
