Schools in Uganda, closed since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will reopen in January 2022 regardless of the vaccination rate in the country, President Yoweri Museveni announced Thursday.
"Be advised that schools will be open in January and the rest of the economy will be open the same January 2022,"
President Yoweri Museveni said in a speech Thursday evening.
“Vaccination is the key to reopening the economy,”
he added, saying that by the end of 2021,
“12 million Ugandans should have been vaccinated”.
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Among these 12 million are 4.8 million
“vulnerable and front-line categories”
, including education, health and security personnel and adults over 50 years of age.
"Walk to health centers, get transported (...), go there by motorbike taxis, by bike or by vehicle and get vaccinated"
, he urged them. In a country where the vaccination rate is very low (0.94% of the population according to the American Johns Hopkins University) despite several million doses available, Yoweri Museveni warned people reluctant to vaccination.
“Even if you don't get the vaccine, we'll open schools and the economy in January 2022. If anything goes wrong, (...) moral responsibility will be yours ”
, he said.
As of October 26, 2.98 million doses of the vaccine had been administered, according to figures from the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
"Currently, 4.7 million vaccines"
are available and 23 million additional doses are expected by the end of the year, said the head of state.
Yoweri Museveni had lifted most of the restrictions on economic activities in September, but schools remained closed, causing concern in the country.
Associations fear that the drop-out of some 15 million Ugandan students has caused an increase in teenage pregnancies and an upsurge in child labor.
In addition, teachers have changed jobs in order to meet the needs of their families.
Some recently told AFP that they did not intend to return to their former occupation, not being sure they would be able to receive a decent salary.
Some schools are crumbling under the weight of debts, unable to repay their loans for months.
Deprived of income, some schools have turned into hotels or restaurants.
Since the start of the pandemic, Uganda has recorded 125,920 cases of coronavirus, for 3,209 deaths, according to figures given by the president on Thursday evening.
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