The wait is over! The date for opening Entebbe international airport, Uganda’s only international air transport hub has been announced.
The Entebbe city based airport was closed due to the outbreak of coronavirus a global pandemic. On the 21st march 2020, the first coronavirus case in Uganda was found and tension spread around the country. A bug that had caused lots of havoc by claiming people’s lives in the first world countries had come to Uganda a third world country which had no idea on how to combat it. This led to the eventual close of various institutions and sectors of the country and Entebbe airport fell victim. The airport had to be closed due to the fact that the virus was a foreign one coming from countries like China, America, Italy, England, Germany, Spain to mention but a few yet the airport is a main spot for foreigners. More to that, the first coronavirus case in Uganda was detected at the airport.
However as months have gone by, Uganda and the world at large has devised means of how to prevent the virus of which Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) have been set out by the World Health Organisation. Countries have adapted to the SoPs and they are working wonders as the spread of coronavirus amongst people worldwide has drastically declined. Countries like Uganda have started opening up a few of its sectors so that its economy does not completely collapse. But the Entebbe airport and all international borders still remain closed up-to-date.
Nonetheless, coronavirus is here to stay and life has to move on, the world has to keep moving and operating. Entebbe airport though still the number one source of covid19, it plays a very pivotal role in the economic development of Uganda. This is the main gateway of international travellers yet the tourism industry of Uganda mainly depends of foreign tourists. The airport is also dock or hub for imports and exports of Uganda. With that significance, the airport had to be opened whatsoever.
There has been stalement of opening the airport but the iceberg was broken in yesterday’s concluded meeting where H.E Museveni the president of Uganda met the national covid19 task force to make an action plan on how to open other sectors that are still closed. Among the one discussed was the Entebbe airport. It was agreed that airport was to be opened on the 1st October 2020.
A few guidelines were passed on in the meeting to ensure that no new cases enter into the country through Entebbe airport and among them was to let foreign travellers come to Uganda with a certificate of covid19 free Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) whose validity must be of 72 hours to affirm they did a test of the virus and also act as evidence of their health status.
More information about the opening of the Entebbe airport shall proceed if anything new comes out from the authorities.
