Kampala, Uganda | URN | President Yoweri Museveni has told MPs that one of the three COVID-19 tests he undertook on Wednesday 7, June 2023 morning returned positive.
Museveni made the revelation at the end of his State of the Nation (SoN) address to Parliament at Kololo Independence Grounds.
“In the morning I was feeling as if I have a slight cold, so I called my medical team to check corona. They took samples as usual…there is what they call a rapid one, that one was negative… then there are two which go for deep analysis, one was negative, the other one was positive,” President Museveni said.
He further explained that this was the reason he traveled to Kololo in separate cars with first lady Janet Kataha Museveni.
“I said mama please use your car… but since I am here, I will not infect you, there is a big distance here, so we shall sort out that little issue,” he added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier last month declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency but stressed that it does not mean the disease is no longer a global threat. This announcement came more than three years after WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency.
According to WHO’s coronavirus dashboard, as of 10 May 2023, the cumulative Covid-19 cases worldwide approach 766 million. Nearly 7 million deaths from the disease have been reported.
In a statement, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general noted that for over 12 months the pandemic has been on a downward trend with increased immunity, dropped death rates, and that the pressure on health systems has eased.
Before the SoN, Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga had asked lawmakers to boycott the event, saying it was a waste of taxpayers’ money partly through the expenditure on COVID-19 tests.
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Mpuuga said that the president continues to waste public resources on COVID-19 tests whenever he meets people both at his home and in other parts of the country and that the address alone was expected to attract at least 20,000 people including MPs, heads of government ministries, departments and agencies, security officers, and journalists among others, who were all subjected to tests.
It is estimated that the event cost at least Shs 3 billion of taxpayers’ money for the tests, yet in the budget speech scheduled for next week another estimated Shs 3 billion will be spent on mandatory COVID-19 tests. Mpuuga’s criticism hinged on the fact that WHO declared an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency.
