Uganda Travel advisory for Corona Virus (COVID 19)

The outbreak of Corona Virus (COVID 19) has been declared a pandemic. Corona Virus is large family of virus and results into illness right from the common cold to even more severe diseases. This kind of virus is zoonotic which denotes it can spread among animals and humans. Being a global health issue, everyone requires to keep up-to-date on COVID 19 outbreak which is why we have this essential travel advisory for you to consider for any plans travel to Uganda for holiday.

Currently, the countries with confirmed coronavirus cases include North Macedonia, South Korea, Slovenia, Slovakia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, San Marino, Albania, Afghanistan, Australia, Algeria, Armenia, Andorra, Argentina, Bhutan, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belarus, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bolivia, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, China, Croatia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Denmark, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cyprus, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Hong Kong, Honduras, Greece, Germany, Guyana, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Israel, India, Indonesia, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lebanon, Kuwait, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Maldives, Malaysia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Portugal, Panama, Norway, Oman, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Taiwan, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Togo, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Vatican city and many more.

Following the outbreak of COVID-2019, the Ugandan government has temporarily halted all international conferences which were due to be conducted in Uganda until further notice. They include among others the Africa Climate Week AND g77+China summit which was supposed to be held in Kampala next month. This communicated by Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng as she updated the public on Uganda’s enhanced measures to prevent the importation of COVID-19. However, Uganda has not yet recorded any confirmed coronavirus cases or suspected case of COVID-19 as of 7th March 2020 update.

Regardless of this, a total of about 1296 travelers, Ugandans, Chinese and others who are getting back home have been noted as high risk and identified for purposes of follow up. She also added that about 765 travelers are under self-quarantine and 456 of these finished the mandatory 14 days of self-isolation.

She further disclosed that stringent measures have been put forward by Ugandan government to help contain coronavirus. Those residing in Iran, South Korea, China, Germany, France, Iran and Spain are advised to postpone non-essential travel to Uganda.

Travel recommendation to the Uganda tourism traveler

Uganda through the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) has put forward some of the recommendations which any intending travelers to Uganda from the countries affected with corona virus should observe. UTB encourages intending travelers to maintain their reservations but delay their travel till a later date when the disease is globally contained and no longer considered an outbreak. With outbreak of COVID-2019, Uganda’s travel and tourism sectors are highly threatened and therefore, UTB has put forward some of the recommendations.

The measures which have been put forward and should be observed by travelers include:

• Avoiding body hugging and handshake; regular cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces like door handles, washing hands with disinfectants.
• All tour operators, travel agencies and accommodation facilities are encouraged to educate their staff and visitors on preventive measures on preventive measures to help mitigate contraction of corona virus.
• All tour operators, travel agencies and accommodation facilities should avail hand washing facilities with soap at their premises and on-board safari vehicles and vessels.
• To enhance preparedness as the tourism fraternity, tour operators, agencies and accommodation facilities are encouraged to maintain a stock of recommended masks (N95) for their clients.
• All tour operators and travel agencies should encourage visitors who intend to travel to Uganda to have their own recommended masks (N95).