The Ministry of Health has temporarily suspended mandatory testing for Covid-19 of truck drivers and passengers at the Malaba and Busia land borders.
In a statement from the Director General Health services, Dr. Charles Olaro, he said the suspension was to ease the movement of trucks into and within the country.
“Given the poor performance of antigen RDTs amongst non-symptomatic individuals and the continued buildup of trucks on the Kenyan side of the border, creating another super-spreader scenario, the Ministry of Health has decided to immediately and temporarily suspend mandatory testing at the two border points to ease movement of trucks into and within the country to avert the potential super spreader event,” Dr. Charles Olaro said.
Stakeholders in the transport sector blamed slow Covid-19 testing in Malaba for the ever-rising fuel prices in Uganda.
Queues of waiting cargo trucks as long as 80km waiting to be cleared have been reported in the past few days.
Fuel prices have been steadily rising since last year and by the end of last week, fuel was already at 12,000 shillings in some parts of the country like Hoima.
