Uganda on Wednesday relaxed Covid-19 restrictions for travellers who are fully vaccinated.

Speaking to journalists, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said the country has suspended the requirement of a negative PCR test done within 72 hours before boarding a plane for all travellers as long as they are fully vaccinated.

However, travellers may still be required to have the PCR test results if it is a requirement of the destination country, or the airline they are travelling in.

More than 44 million doses of vaccines have been received in the country, according to Ms Aceng, with 15 million people (71 percent of the targeted 22 million) receiving at least one dose of vaccination.“Over 10 million people are fully vaccinated, accounting for 48 percent of the target population and 59,542 people have received their booster dose,” Ms Aceng said.

She said the government will vaccinate students in secondary school from May 9, 2022 as they reopen for the second term of the school year.“The Pfizer vaccine will be deployed to vaccinate this age group. Pfizer is a two-dose vaccine, administered four weeks apart,” the minister added.

Uganda has registered 164,118 cases of Covid-19 and 3,596 deaths since March 2020.“There are two severely ill Covid-19 patients on admission at Mulago National Referral Hospital, and St. Mary's Hospital, Lacor,” Ms Aceng said. According to her, the two patients are not vaccinated.“The country has sustained low transmission of Covid-19 with a positivity rate of less than 2 percent since February 2022. This is attributed to the early decisive and sustained measures we put in place to curb the spread of Covid-19 and the cooperation of all Ugandans to adhere to these measures, including taking up Covid-19 vaccination,” she added.

Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni received an award for his management of the coronavirus pandemic.

Museveni was recognised by the British Medical Journal and the National Health Service Health Education Program for his “extraordinary leadership in pandemic management.”To curb the spread of the virus, Uganda maintained a strict lockdown from March 18, 2020 that saw many businesses and schools closed for two years, dealing a heavy blow to people’s sources of livelihood.

At the time, Museveni maintained that it was better to suffer under poverty than die trying to fend for oneself.

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