Uganda moves to curb virus spread by truck drivers

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has announced new measures to control the spread of the coronavirus by lorry drivers after more than 20 entering the country from Kenya tested positive.

The drivers won't be allowed to carry passengers or to sleep in hotels or other people's homes.

Mandatory testing for Covid-19 has already caused huge traffic jams on the border between Kenya and Uganda.

The route from the Kenyan port city of Mombasa is vital for transporting food, medicine and other essential goods to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

President Museveni said stopping cargo traffic altogether would be suicidal.

He also spoke out against growing hostility towards truck drivers by some Ugandans who worry they could be transmitting the disease in the country.

But he acknowledged that the group posed a real threat and compared the situation to the Aids scourge of the 1980s and 90s when lorry drivers in the region transmitted HIV in towns and cities they travelled through.