KAMPALA — The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has issued travel guidelines to tour operators —guiding on tourist vans over inter district bans.
UTB Chief Executive Office Lilly Ajarova, in the new guidelines, warned that only vans cleared by Tourism Ministry will be allowed to move after Thursday June 10.
Here are the guidelines that the vans will have to abide by.
“All tourist vehicles must be licensed by the Ministry of Works and Transport and attached to tourism companies registered and licensed by Uganda Tourism Board.
All tourists are encouraged to carry their detailed travel itineraries especially cor inter-district routes.
All tourist guides accompanying tourists must carry their
identification.
Tourists are encouraged to carry proof of payment for accommodation and tourist activity fees shch as; national park entrance fees and permits where applicable.
COVID-19 SOPs must be adhered to in the tourist vehicles with attention to social distancing, wearing of masks and sanitising.”
She said that tourism in Uganda is open and accessible to all and called upon all tourists to comply with the set guidelines in order to curb down the rising infections.
President Museveni on Sunday re-imposed a strict lockdown that included the closure of schools and the suspension of inter-district travel to help beat back a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.
The new measures, which became effective on include the closure of all educational institutions, some bans on travel, the shutdown of weekly open markets, and the suspension of church services.
Most of the new restrictions, Museveni said, would be implemented for 42 days.
An assessment of their impact will then help the government decide whether to ease or prolong them, he added.
Uganda implemented one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, but it was gradually lifted as cases slowed to a trickle.
Last month however infections started to spike and new cases, particularly among younger people, have surged, fuelling fears that the country could slip into an out-of-control second wave.
Museveni said in a televised address on Sunday night that a second wave gripping the country was “diffuse and sustained”.
The government, he said, was worried the jump in cases would “exhaust the available bed space and oxygen supply in hospitals unless we constitute urgent public health measures”.
“In this wave the intensity of severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients and death is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic,” he said
