The Ministry of Health will today test all the members of parliament and its staff for coronavirus, the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga directed on Wednesday.
This decision to screen the 452 MPs followed after several legislators demanded to be tested for COVID-19 because of their exposure to the public since the outbreak of the pandemic.
After a few days, the government announced plans to test all ministers for Covid-19 given the fact that they have been involved in the interventions to combat the virus.
The Ministry Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga announced on July 15 during her communication that the clerk of parliament would organise MPs to get tested in clusters.
“Starting from tomorrow at our medical centre here, you can go and get tested but we shall have to cluster it because we cannot have all of you there and the Clerk will organize,” she said.
Ugandan MPs had also insisted that they should also have their family members tested during the exercise but Kadaga emphasized that the arrangement is strictly for legislators.
She also added that that Parliament cannot be left out after there have been rounds of testing for the ministers who continue to mix with untested MPs.
The parliament was also unease after the ongoing rumours about a female member of parliament who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Hellen Kawesa, the acting director of corporate and public affairs trashed this false information and said they have not received any official communication about this case
adding that they have only seen the reports on social media.
She told a media outlet that this round of screening for MPs and staff is being done on the advice of the Ministry of Health and the National Task Force.
Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda was the only member of the cabinet to go into self-isolation after one of his subordinates tested positive for COVID-19.
So far, Uganda's confirmed coronavirus cases have increased by 3 to 1,043 from the 1,928 samples tested yesterday.
And 20 more patients have recovered increasing the total number of recoveries to 1,004, with no deaths yet.
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