Government will take over the testing, for Covid, of all travelers arriving in Uganda through the airport, a role which has hitherto been conducted by private laboratories.
The new system which was adopted by Cabinet on Monday takes effect in one week.
Cabinet also resolved that all incoming travelers who enter through Entebbe International airport undergo a mandatory sample removal for Covid-19 testing. This includes those that are vaccinated.
“We shall now be testing all incoming travelers irrespective of where you are coming from,” Information Minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi told a news conference in Kampala on Wednesday.
Initially, government had resorted to testing only travelers arriving from Category 2 countries (U.S., UK, UAE, Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and India) considered to be high risk countries.
Under the new changes announced Wednesday, the Minister said tourists will be given special treatment.
“Those carrying tourist visas shall have a special desk to handle them. They will be allowed to proceed to their hotels where their results will be emailed to them,” Dr. Baryomunsi told reporters.
“Once you (tourist) test negative, you proceed with your tourism activities. If you test positive, then you are managed in accordance with guidelines set by Ministry of Health.”
If one presents with Covid symptoms, they will be admitted in a health facility but if they are asymptomatic, they will be kept in isolation until they test negative.
To conduct Covid tests at the airport, government has been partnering with 6 private labs. These labs were charging $65 per test.
When government takes over in a week’s time, it will charge only $30 per test. The money will be deposited in a bank at the airport which will be operational 24/7.
The Minister said travelers have complained about the hefty charges as well as inconvenience of private labs moving them and testing them from other locations away from the airport.
“Arrangements are being made to ensure that travelers spend as less time as possible while waiting for their sample results. We have found out that travelers are spending up to 4 hours waiting, which is very inconveniencing,” he said.
He explained that the quick turnaround is necessary to facilitate smooth operation of the tourism sector. Prior to the Covid pandemic which disrupted international travel, tourism was Uganda’s highest foreign income earner, bringing in $1.6bn annually.
The country received at least 1.5 million foreign visitors each year.
However, the annual earnings dropped by 73% and visitors dropped by 69.3% due to restrictions in international travel during the pandemic.
New variants
Dr Baryomunsi says the new measures are partly to control the spread of new variants.
“The reason we went into the second wave of infections, was because of the new Delta variant which originated from India,” he said.
Authorities say that although Uganda has been asking all travelers to present PCR test results showing negative results within 72 hours prior to arrival, some people have later tested positive upon entry. These cases go up to as many as 700 people, majority of them testing positive for the Delta variant.
This is attributed to forged test results, faults within the testing labs in the source countries and travelers contracting the disease while in transit, the Minister said.
“We feel we should be much more cautious as we open our airport and entry points and cognizant of the fact that there’s a risk of these new variants coming into the country.”
He said the new measure is also aimed at keeping the new Mu variant (from Colombia, South America) at bay.
