Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has announced the closure of the border with Kenya at Malaba after the country confirmed its first positive Covid-19 case, leaving commuters and truck drivers stranded, the Daily Nation reported.
The Nation said most Kenyan traders who fetch goods from Uganda were complaining that they had been caught unawares.
“We have decided to prohibit all passenger planes coming from outside Uganda from landing at any of the airports of Uganda. Only cargo planes will be allowed to fly in and out of Uganda,” it quoted Museveni as saying in a televised address to the nation on Sunday.
Kenya is yet to close its borders, only directing arrivals to self-quarantine and obey other precautionary steps.
Malaba-based immigration boss Francis Oketch said the department was on high alert.
“We have not closed our border, but Ugandan police officers are not allowing anyone to enter their country,” he told the Nation.
Oketch said health officers are stationed at the border to screen and sensitise residents on safety tips, adding that an isolation centre had been set up.
The Lwakhakha border point had also been shut, reports said.
The coronavirus which first emerged in Wuhan, China last December, has spread to at least 166 countries and territories, according to data compiled by the U.S. based Johns Hopkins University, Anadolu Agency reported.
The latest situational report from the World Health Organisation showed that 292,142 cases had been confirmed around the world, leading to 12,784 deaths.
-ANA
