Museveni to Deliver End of Year Address amidst Anxiety of Economy Reopening

President Yoweri Museveni is this evening expected to deliver his last public address of the year. 

According to Lindah Nabusayi, the Presidential Press Secretary, Museveni will at 8pm deliver his End of Year Address where he is also expected to address the nation on COVID-19 and Government's plans to fully reopen the economy. 

Museveni earlier on promised to reopen the economy in January 2022 amidst the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign. 

It remains unclear whether Museveni will stick to his earlier commitment to reopen the economy despite a surge in COVID-19 cases following the outbreak of Omicron, the new variant which is spreading rapidly amongst the population. 

As at 29 December 2021, Uganda has recorded 1,658 new cases, bringing the cumulative confirmed cases to 140,737.

13,029 of these cases have been registered in less than one month since the country recorded its first cases (7) of Omicron variant on December 7th, 2021. Statistics show that whereas Omicron spreads so fast, it's rate of fatality and severity remains low. 

However, according to Emmanuel Ainebyoona, Ministry of Health Spokesperson, much as the Omicron variant is believed to be less severe, the number of those getting admitted has been slowly increasing for the last one week with Mulago National Referral Hospital having atleast 40 patients, out of which 28 are in High Dependency Unit (HDU) and 12 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 

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