KAMPALA – The Minister for Kampala Betty Amongi has issued a notice to 58 Arcades in Kampala warning them of imminent closure unless they start implementing the prescribed Standard Operating Procedures put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking to the press on Friday, August 21,2020, Amongi said at the time of inspection, the arcades listed still had weak areas to rectify so as to conform to the standards.
“Namely they were not observing social distance/overcrowding, no functional toilets, obstruction in corridors and poor ventilation,” she said.
She gave a seven days ultimatum to arcade owners to comply with the guidelines or face closure.
Among the are arcades that risk closure include; Mini Price, Vienna Business Centre, Naiga Chambers, Masaka Jubilee, Afro Complex, Sena Arcade, SB Plaza, and King Fahad.
Others are Sun City, Lucky Complex, Nabukeera, Quallicell, Zainab Aziza, Majestic, Namaganda, Energy Centre and Nasser road printers.
In a newly released circular by the Kampala COVID-19 taskforce, infections in the capital city are 41.2% of the national active cases.
Amongi revealed that the cases are most registered from work places, political activities, public transport and arcades among others.
She advised the public to be complaint or else a recommendation will be sent to the President proposing a lockdown.
“If we do not obtain cooperation from the public, we shall make recommendations to the president on what is the way forward. Kampala is the sitting room for Uganda, if we see that the sitting room is going to endanger the bedrooms, we shall ask that the sitting room be closed to safeguard the bedrooms. It is up to us to avoid the lockdown,” she said.
Amongi further noted that Kampala registered its first COVID-19 case on March 23,2020 and then hit the hundred mark on July 30,2020.
“From this,it took Kampala 4 months to hit 100 cases, 10 days to hit 200 cases yet less than 5 days closing in to the 400 mark. The increase in cases is therefore a great concern,” said Amongi.
