The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, announced late Saturday the lifting of movement restrictions in the municipalities of Mubende and Kassanda, in the center of the country and considered the main points of infection of the Ebola outbreak declared in September and for which there is still an alert in force.
Both municipalities, combined, have had more than a hundred cases and fifty deaths since the declaration of the outbreak of the Sudanese strain of Ebola, a particularly lethal variant that kills between 40 and 60 percent of those affected and for which only experimental vaccines are available.
Mubende and Kassanda have been 34 and 37 days respectively without declaring confirmed cases of Ebola but it is necessary to wait 42 days (two complete incubation cycles) to terminate the health alert, Museveni explained in an address to the nation delivered by the country’s vice president, Jessica Alupo, this past Saturday.
To date, the country has confirmed 142 cases, 56 deaths and 86 recoveries with no further follow-up contacts. The worst affected district has been Mubende, the initial epicenter with 66 cases and 29 deaths, followed by Kassanda with 49 cases and 21 deaths, and Kampala with 18 cases and three deaths. No cases have been admitted to hospitals in the country.
«In this context, I will lift all movement restrictions and curfew in Mubende and Kassanda districts with immediate effect, today (Saturday) 17 December 2022,» the president announced, before qualifying that all additional health structures put in place to control the outbreak will remain in place until the official declaration of the eradication of the outbreak, starting with the total of approximately 3,600 specialized health workers, who will remain on standby.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
