President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has ruled out placing Kampala Metropolitan under lockdown as a measure to prevent the transmission of Ebola disease.
Ebola outbreak began in early September in Mubende, about 80km (50 miles) from the capital Kampala, and has remained the epicentre.
The President was compelled to announce a three-week lockdown in two districts of Mubende and Kasanda
At the time (two weeks ago) 19 people had succumbed to the disease who were among the 58 cases recorded.
Since then new deaths and new cases have soared with some being registered in Kampala.
Museveni previously ruled out lockdowns, saying Ebola was not an airborne virus so did not require the same measures as Covid-19.
With tens of cases recorded in the Capital City, a section of the public has appealed to government to ban movement of people, close schools, shut down bars and places of worship to curtail the spread of the deadly disease.
Doctors also recommended a lockdown.
The Uganda Medical Association President, Dr. Samuel Oledo late last month has called for stringent measures including a lockdown in Kampala.
15 cases had been registered within 48 hours in Kampala.
Dr. Oledo expressed fear that the government is sitting on a time bomb warning that the worst is yet to come if nothing is done in the shortest time possible to contain the spread of the viral disease.
He said Ebola is not a political disease, urging Ugandans to take extra vigilance, explaining that 5 out of 10 people who get Ebola die.
A group of businessmen and women from the Indian Community on Thursday met President Museveni who hosted them for DIWALI at State House Entebbe.
Diwali is one of the major religious festivals in Hinduism. The festival generally symbolizes the victory of light over darkness.
The businessmen expressed concerns over various conflicting notices from several government institutions about planned lockdown.
Sources privy to the meeting said the businessmen told the President that the country is yet to recover from the 2 year-COVID lockdown and expressed worry that another Ebola lockdown is likely to crash the economy.
In his response the President said Ebola is not airborne and it can easily be managed.
He told the businessmen and women that the rising cases in Mubende and Kasanda are a result of ignorance of the locals who exhumed ebola bodies at night to perform rituals, yet a corpses are highly infectious.
He ruled out a possibility of locking the city because there is no overflow and all cases which emanated from Mubende are being monitored and others tracked.
